tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-354881962024-02-20T01:52:20.051+01:00Helm's DeepPhilosophical TheologyPaul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comBlogger322125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-20672618112797416632023-01-03T15:40:00.010+01:002023-01-05T09:47:53.312+01:00Ambrose and Classis 2023<p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p>Ambrose and Classis</o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">At the time, not only was Isaac Ambrose putting last touches to the various of his writings, as ……started in the midst of the turmoil, but he is fulfilling his duties as a land .of the Classis of Lancashire. Such were shire-wide bodies of minister of local ministers of the Gospel, and that of Lancashire and of other shires. The minister was in the most, but also were gents who had a place, wealthy, landed and involved. According to Shaw’s account.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"> like Scots , and to King Charles II, Lancashire was much nearer to Presbyterian Scotland, than to that of London in South England. And the classes were gathering similar minister in different localities, distinct from congregational churches e.g. I shall Thomas Jollie ,the Westminster Assembly, a preeminent Presbyterian movement as well some including congregationalists, and some Anglican, were coming to an end with their Confession and Catechisms also in London, for active presbyterians and settled by the House of Commons. Not as episcopacy, hierarchal, and central to the local congregations in groups. though Besides the others there were the independents of long standing such as Philip Nye, W. Gouge, and T. Watson were already independents as ministers in London and areas such as Lancashire. They were allied to the scots such as Baillie who were against the Independents because the independents stopped the members as being one hundred percent Presbyterians. These are classic presbyterian, not those who had been accepted hem as historic Anglicanism. The other presbyterians were classic presbyterian. ‘A ‘classic’ group118f. centred in Lancaster. For the model is not episcopacy but in as we say, laity. The members of the various laity, stems from the Manchester classis members who worked in accordance with the provincial assemblies (1649) This used them for pastoral duties of the general </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">men. From 1657. The member of classes made up from local congregation – the response of the law of the</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">The provincial assembly (125) become some have various character. Shaw says <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">If a minister within the classis bounds may not join the classis whether he was an Episcopalian at heart , or a professed Independent, like Wigan at Birch in he could treat the orders, and conferences with open defiance and contempt. If a parish would not set up the government, and elect an eldership, its indifference to the classis was invincible, and although presbytery had not been legislatively dethroned from the position as the side recognized successor to the preview national Episcopal Church, it was frowned by the civil power, and lacking the support and favour of that civil power it found of that civil power it found itself powerless even in its own domain.(Shaw 125)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">This gives an eye to the jockeying that went on between Episcopal and Independent and Reformed individuals. The questions of literacy or numeracy of candidates is not researched by Shaw, as far as I can see. It may have been gathered churches were in the of classis. The view of those who favoured a gathered church, such as Thomas Goodwin, had a career before this in the company of the North of England in the company of Rogers `(check)and a noted preacher John Angier, who in turn in the Company of in Isaac Ambrose, a prominent preacher and theologian of the Reformed in a different part of Lancashire, as we shall see later. Another gathered church `Puritan was Philip Nye, a member of the Manchester Provincial Assembly, which had a form of warrant ‘which was sent round in response to an order of the Province foe a return upon the subject of the withdrawal of elders from their office, ’it is that in striving.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">The Ambrose sixth classics were:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">Croston parish, Leyland parish, Standish parish, Eccleston parish, Penwortham parish,, Hoole parish,, and Brindle parish.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">The ministers fit to be of the sixth classis - Master James Hyde of Croston.,Mr Paul Mathom of Standish, Mr Edward Gee of Eccleston, Mr Henry Walch, of Chorley, Mr James Langley of Leyland, Mr Ralph Marsden, of Brindall<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">The last name I hundfeds of covered by Shaw, was Sir Richard Houghton of sixth classes are familiar, who Isaac Ambrose wrote and who buried his wife in ;Preston, 4<sup>th</sup> January 1757, and in whose home were left to notable Puritans, for example John Howe, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.3333px; text-indent: 37.7953px;">Dr Shaw relates many more of the English classes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">We are only ever to cover strip sof time, and not how the time in weeks and months of the period until1660, followed by the death of Isaac Ambrose in 1662. <i>The Calamy Revised. </i>From 1660, Besides the work of Isaac, who ‘‘took a prominent part in 7<sup>th</sup>, Lancashire some times, several times ‘moderator’. he signed the Consent 1648. While this is obscure but possibly it is a reference to the first formation of the Lancashire classis from its inception. Likewise ‘Assistant to Lancashire Commission 1654. These spell the position of a landed individual, with an active family, reference to Joshua Ambrose. The curate of West Derby , Wilton, Lancs., who was vicar of Childwell 1664-86, and who must have been compliant with the 1660. Also Nehemiah, Curate of Kirkby, Walton, the younger brother of Peter. Both went to Harvard and returns for several years. The effect of the events of 1660 -1662 is evident in the scattering of the family of Isaac. Other names are known to congregational preachers who seem to have their nonconformity more successively. One seems to be John `Angier, who seems to have speaking of wrote introductory letters to Isaac Ambrose’s and William Bell’s to the showed their appreciation to asking him to write an introduction to the former’s <i>Media</i>, and the letter’s <i>Patience.</i> Angier was of Denton, Manchester, who without conforming retained curacy till in death, 1677, .most of the Justices had a great respect for him early to, and some were nearly to his wife (Margaret, daughter of Oswald Mosley of Ancoats. But the family of the Mosley’s is another tale.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">I regret Shaw's book 2 which I could not be find. There is much more to oell.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><br /></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-54930071682140071772022-12-01T12:15:00.001+01:002022-12-01T13:47:41.304+01:00After 1662?<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzGkhx7uYR4QsauwAPMyWSIWcZ65YjJVpDnTwTzjR4XJU1BJicehzEw_7xoE_fmc3lvSghlCF44QKgsPYY1enU14GycBxNzOyTkXE0M-VWhlebQ2apqMFBRo6Mpc2I36L-GNsHLKHjRaEZp6H7AsIupR4KIAcdDdM0oaF5YqURv2Cc2VQtcQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="144" data-original-width="106" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzGkhx7uYR4QsauwAPMyWSIWcZ65YjJVpDnTwTzjR4XJU1BJicehzEw_7xoE_fmc3lvSghlCF44QKgsPYY1enU14GycBxNzOyTkXE0M-VWhlebQ2apqMFBRo6Mpc2I36L-GNsHLKHjRaEZp6H7AsIupR4KIAcdDdM0oaF5YqURv2Cc2VQtcQ=w249-h338" width="249" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i> Isaac A</i><i>mbrose </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div></span><div><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Isaac Ambrose was born in 1554, the son of Richard, the Vicar of Ormskirk. This meant that the Act of Uniformity in 1662 he must have looked to first hand to Charles II and the conformity of Anglicanism. His reaction is going to live in Preston, and was devoted to the written books which we must devoured many hours with the loss of the tithes of before the Act. and to those with Reformed kin, These three books, the first, the main one, <i>Looking unto Jesus</i>, seem to have the most popular of writings, a vast text dedicated to The Honourable William Earl of Bedford, Lord Russel, Baron of Thornhaugh. He had other landed individuals, Sir Richard Houghton was one who was judged’ fit to be of’ the Sixth Classis, (more of this later), and whose funeral of his wife, LadyMargaret. Isaac Ambrose preached her at her funeral, the only such printed and published of such there remains in his writings, taken in Preston in January 1657, still beyond </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">the Ejection.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> These Are the words of his last book, <i>War With Devils</i> , EDINBURGH 1762. Thou hast now my <i>last works</i> of <i>practical divinity</i>, , that ever I mean to <i>publish</i> to the <i>world</i> <i>; and</i>. if last words are wont to bear </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> the greatest weight and to make deepest impression, much more let these last practical lines find <i>some</i> entertainent from thee for thy spiritual good. This (next to Gods's glory) is my chiefest end: and so I leave thee, and the book together, in God's hands: may his Spirit inspire good motions, when thou readest my directions, and bring them to good issue, is the prayer of, Thy unworthy friend, and Servant in Christ's vineyard, ISAAC AMBROSE.' </span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Think of it, over the date of publications that were printed and published In Edinburgh, 1762, Ambrose’s <i>The</i> <i>Complete Works</i> characterised ‘eminent Minister of God’s Word’, by the printers and publication, and booksellers Wotherspoon and Martin, of Edinburgh, and at the rear a List of of about 320 subscribers, What would England have been like without the 1662 Ejection, given a similar arrangement to Edinburgh in all the main English cities of the country?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>The Ambrose family</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Two brothers (or cousins) of Isaac Ambrose were Joshua, after 1662 who became an agent to facilitate (it seems) those attempting to go to New England and who went with Nehemiah another brother, or cousin, who was son of Peter Ambrose, the Curate of West Derby, Walton, who had served as curate at Kirkby by Walton and who graduated B.A. Harvard 1653, himself, and who was a Fellow 1654-7, Both went together to Harvard and came back with these attainments. Their agency was funded by tithes which further legislation, to use of the tithes those were used by Nehemiah. Perhaps he was no intention to be a minister there. He had been married at Toxteth in 1660, to Hannah J.Beadle St. Qlave’s, Old Jewry, London. This lady’s name might have been that of a daughter of John Beadle, the Nonconformist leader , Rector of Barnston, Essex, who suffered from the days of Archbishop Laud in the 1633’s and later who had daughters who witnessed the disruption of Presbyterians as the consequences of the Ejection. I am not aware of the relation between Peter Ambrose and Isaac, perhaps brothers..<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">What follows is what we may discover in a third blog about Ambrose, who before 1660 had held positions of the <i>classis</i> of Lancashire seventh congregations, in a form of a presbytery, presumably. In Shaw’s meticulous of classes in <i>A History of English Church</i>, each classis has ministers and ‘others fit’ (Vol II, 397) lay persons, together is consisted of nine congregations and ministers, In the account. Another well-off member were Sir Richard Houghton, who was ‘fit to be’ , i.e. playing the role of a lay adviser, and whose widow’s funeral Lady Margaret Houghton, was in January 1657, at Preston at a time prior to the Act of Uniformity five years enacted , Isaac led, the only case printed. The seventh Classis which Ambrose who was of congregations consisting </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">of Preston. Kirkham, Garstang, and Poulton, perhaps more. was several times a moderator of the Lancashire Classis. Isaac Ambrose at this time was vicar of Garstang(e), having been earlier vicar of Castleton, Derbyshire, who in 1660 making the time of leaving his vicarage under force by payment, and in 1662 the Bishop of Chester is mentioned as by made vacant by their nonconformity. In this period he received and returned a letter regarding angels to Richard Baxter, November 19, 1661. London which is in printed in 586-8 under ‘Objections Answered’ of his </span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">Complete Works,</i><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> …and ‘Redeeming the Time, A sermon Preached at Preston in Lancashire, By Isaac Ambrose, 4</span><sup style="font-family: Georgia;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"> January 1657, Preacher of the Gospel at Preston, at </span><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">Garstang</i><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">e, in the same County.’ All this would take place Pre-1660. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> The Vicar of Ormskirk, is another village to the south of Garstang. After 1660, when the tithes of the parishes as deprived Ambrose moved to be vicar of the parish in Preston, Church Weind. It is this that is mentioned that, of ‘Twas Custom once in a Year, for the space of a Month to retire into a little Hut in a Wood, and avoiding all Humane Converse to devote himself to Contemplation.’ This habit looks to be started in 166o onwards, living in Preston, but perhaps earlier. Isaac died in 23 Jan 1664.(this paragraph is taken from <i>Calamy Revised</i> ed. A.G. Matthews, OUP, 1934, p.9.) (what to do is later?)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Other dates and details are provided to the reader of The COMPLETE WORKS of that Eminent MINISTER OF `GOD’S Word, that I previously refer to, containing what now follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> I. PRIMA, MEDIA AND ULTIMA; OR THE FIRST, MIDDLE and LAST THINGS,WHEREIN IS SET FORTH, THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION, OR THE NEW BIRTH,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> 2.OF SANCTIFICATION, IN THE MEANS, DUTIES, AND ORDINANCES, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, FOR INCREASE AND CONTINUANCE of a GODLY LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">3.Certain MEDITATIONS ON Man’s Misery in this Life, Death, Judgment; and on Heaven and Hell; As also, on GOD’s Redemption and Salvation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">A short ACCOUNT of the LIFE, CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES of the AUTHOR provides some further information<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Life and death of Nonconformity<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">…...that time was not spent in inactivity by him, but employed to the in the most valuable purpose for it was he revised and gave the finishing stroke to the greatest part of his works, and perhaps work on other part of them; in particular, his discourse concerning angels, which was the last of all these his performances; through which, and through which, and through which, and through all the rest of his works, a runs a constant strain of piety, holy devotion, and meditation, and fervour of spirit; which very well agreeth with the following fervour of spirit; which very well agreeth with the following with character, given of him by very learned and eminent, hand;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">While speaking of the REV, MR. ISAAC AMBROSE, DR CALAMY’S LIVES, VoL. 2, 409, he says,” He lived and died a Nonconfirmest, and was of a man of that of substantial worth, that eminent piety, and that exemplary life as a minister and a Christian, that it is to be lamented the world both should not have benefit of some particular memoirs concerning him from some able hand.“ …As we have seen, he lived, in the latter part of his life, at Preston;, and, when his end drew more, he came home to Preston from Bolton, and set things in order. In a little time some came to Garstang to visit him; after discoursing freely them, and like a man sensible of his death being near, he accompanied them to their horses, and when he came back shut himself up in his parlour, the usual place of his soliloquy, meditation and prayer. They thought he staid long, and so opened the door,,and found him just expiring. This was in the year 1664, Isaac aged 72. ‘He was holy in his life ,happy in his death, and honoured by God and all good men.’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">What we see is the scattering effects of the Puritans, their families, not to mention the impoverishment after ejection from parishes while children growing and so on. In the case of the Ambroses, where there was preaching and books, the conditions of Presbyterians and Baptists and the Congregational churches were weakened, and Nonconformity , as a movement, never recovered, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">NOTE: details of the Ambrose family, the letter by Ambrose to , etc. and of Villages can be found in <i>Calamy Revised </i>A.G.Matthews <i> (</i>Oxford, 1934<i>)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>I will attempt a third blog on Isaac Ambrose's activity on the political side in these years of upheaval.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">It must be understood that the place names of the villages and districts have been</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> supplied </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">in <i>Calamy Revised</i> ed. A.G. Matthews</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-8910534454485515722022-10-29T12:18:00.001+01:002022-11-09T19:33:08.143+01:00A Northern Puritan, <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi13CwhjAOq55qegmdVnGTTDuwfmVbmMOfoHfJHxXpdw37_psPwYwolj_P6PB-1lSUSW1glpOQE92mxvGhzPyMNOk2LUWux6IKlIbwhTV31OUQDFwShJ1nlf3-etfZeHgl5bFAnmufW5kHwLEuE-JstwEAvCsqReBDUxtCip1yaRrqQzIo0yQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi13CwhjAOq55qegmdVnGTTDuwfmVbmMOfoHfJHxXpdw37_psPwYwolj_P6PB-1lSUSW1glpOQE92mxvGhzPyMNOk2LUWux6IKlIbwhTV31OUQDFwShJ1nlf3-etfZeHgl5bFAnmufW5kHwLEuE-JstwEAvCsqReBDUxtCip1yaRrqQzIo0yQ" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>Isaac Ambrose 1591-1664</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">It is common to draw attention to the same handful of names of Puritan such as Manton, Calamy, Goodwin, Baxter, Bates, Tuckney, and Caryl. Many of these are from London. But those who lived until 1662 came from every region of England. Isaac Ambrose, the Son of Richard, Vicar of Ormskirk, in Lancashire.. He was educated both in Oxford, Brasenose, and Cambridge, Magdalene, 1632. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">Mr Isaac Ambrose was born in the year1591; and though we are at loss to know details his parentage, yet, by the figure he made both in the learned world, and more especially in the church, it appears his education was liberal, and himself assiduous in his application to his studies; of which he has (it being impossible that such precious fruit should grow either in a barren or uncultivated soil) through all of which there shineth the greatest piety, zeal for God’s glory, and concern for the salvation of souls:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">We know what his writings were. In the folio published in Edinburgh by Martin and Wotherspoon, in1761. It is titled <i>The Complete of Works of that Eminent Minister of God’s Word</i>, Mr Isaac Ambrose Consisting of the following Treatises: Viz.<i>1 Prima , Media and Ultima OR , The Middle and Last Things.</i> II<i> Looking untoJesus, as carrying on the Great Work of Man’s Salvation: III War with Devils, Ministration of and Communion with Angels, IV with a ‘Sermon added concerning Redeem the Time’. </i>(Ambrose preached this at the funeral at Preston in January 1657 of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Lady Margaret Houghton, who was a member of a wealthy Puritan family in the area. For a while the eminent Puritan John Howe had been the Houghton’s chaplain.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">) These sentences show what a rural, dedicated Puritan Minister could produce, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">January 1657.) </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;"> </i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> This was A Short Account of the Life, Character and Principles of the Author, an extract biographical entry taken from Edmund Calamy’s </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Lives </i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">2.409.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">What follows are some extracts:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">In his youth he made himself perfectly with Plutarch and Cicero intimate, and was well acquainted with with the other fine writers of Greece and Rome by which means he was well instructed in the <i>belles lettres</i>, and the various thoughts and opinions of the greatest men among the Ancients . yet, notwithstanding this conversation With those sages, he was not so superstitiously fond of antiquity, as to fit down there, in contempt of all later and helps and advancements. Being thus prepared, he addressed himself to the more close, particular and thorough knowledge of Theology. In that science, he exercised his mind upon what he read; he considered, compared, and inferred. He had the felicity of clear and diligent thinking. By reading he rendered his understanding full, and by meditation he kept that fullness from being disorderly and confused. He thought it not enough or bundles of novel opinions , to understand the current orthodoxy of the times, or to gain the faculty of speaking to the common people in the taking tone and phrase in vogue (things that constitute the divines of that age) but enquired into the b</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">And of his last days, also at the first pages, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"> During the <i>long parliament </i>under Oliver Cromwell<i>, </i>Ambrose was settled at Preston in Lancashire, where he laboured in his ministerial work, for a considerable time, with great success, and regarded of all. From thence was and regarded of all. From thence he was removed to Garstang, within ten miles of Preston, where the <i>act of uniformity </i>found him in the year 1662<i>, </i>which was<i> </i>the second year after the restoration of King Charles II, When he, with near two thousand more ministers, lecturers etc were silenced and laid aside from the public work of the ministry for not conforming to the established Church of England; and he was never again experienced rest during life. Yet that time was not spent in inactivity by him, but employed to the most purpose.....for then was he revised and gave the finishing stroke to the greatest part of his and then it he to the greatest parts of his works from his youth, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">From a sketch of dates from <i>Calumny Revised</i> ed A.D.Matthews (Clarendon Press, 1934Oxford, p.9), we learn that Isaac Ambrose was a Curate of St Edmunds, Castleton, Derbyshire, and later the vicar of Ormskirk, North of Liverpool and Preston and ejected by the Bishop of Chester, while when he was vicar of Garstang in 1662, a small market town at the foot of the Pennines. Ambrose was prominent the in Lancashire Classis during the era of Oliver Cromwell’s Long Parliament, being moderator of it several times. He married to Judith, and had several children while at Garstang. ‘It was his usual custom, once in a year, for the space of a Month to devote himself to Contemplation.’ He died 23 January , after his ejection. His daughter Judith and Joseph Moxon his son who married, who died and was buried at Preston , a grocer. It was noted that he wrote to Richard Baxter Nov. 1661, about angels. His publications were appeared in London 1649-62. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">There is an edition of his <i>Complete Works</i>, Dundee, 1761 and a sermon ’Redeeming the Time 1657 at the funeral of the honourable Lady Margaret Houghton, revised and somewhat enlarged, and at the importunity of some published, by Isaac Ambrose, Preacher of the Gospel ar <i>Garstang, in the same County. Earlier he wrote to Richard Baxter and his Letter of Baxter’s and one from W.Cole Preston October 8, 1662 ‘</i>One thing that was peculiar in him deserveth to be mentioned here desireth to be mentioned here, for the space of a month, to retire into a little hut in a wood, to devote himself to contemplation. Possibly by this practice he was fitter for his sacred ministration all the rest of the year. He lived, in the letter part of his life, at Preston, and when his end drew near, he was very sensible of it… Having taken leave of his friends abroad with unusual solemnity, as if he foresaw that he should see them no more, he came to Preston from Bolton and set all things in order In a little time some of his hearers came to Garstang to visit him: after discoursing freely with them, and like a man sensible of his death being near, he accompanied them to their horses, and when he came shut himself up in his parlour, the usual place of his soliloquy, meditation and prayer. They thought he staid too long, and so opened the door, and found him just expiring. This was in1664, aged 72; he was holy in his life, happy in his death, and honoured by God and all good men.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 20px;">Other books identified are ‘ <i>A well-ordered family’</i>, a republication of <i>Looking unto Jesus</i> , Ambrose’s most published book, by Reformation Heritage Books. The editor and publisher refers to it as a good example of ‘experimental theology’. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-indent: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-30507727323919207802022-10-11T16:53:00.004+01:002022-12-01T12:40:43.171+01:00Responsibility<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">Responsibility</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYNn17ubE_A3xYurYLkMGsiDbZ2Pv4sYFZpW7XzOvcVzz4Whgd88Xstqa5r-9Zc2NqqVH5cB8kqOZpW6t7A-6JCPALMLl0pch9tyHiB-ULnEC9cpO6ImND2SNxLkaLF0ct70-pKBNS1LgQT9UxBQQpIPw_FjIeg59lnjnZWmSXLMA4xvD0Fw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="196" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYNn17ubE_A3xYurYLkMGsiDbZ2Pv4sYFZpW7XzOvcVzz4Whgd88Xstqa5r-9Zc2NqqVH5cB8kqOZpW6t7A-6JCPALMLl0pch9tyHiB-ULnEC9cpO6ImND2SNxLkaLF0ct70-pKBNS1LgQT9UxBQQpIPw_FjIeg59lnjnZWmSXLMA4xvD0Fw" width="182" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)</i><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">In the recent book <i>The Sovereignty of God, </i>edited, by Brett Lee-Price, who is an expert to do with anything with Arthur W. Pink. I have helped him in joining the <i>Afterwords </i>which is devoted to discussing the changes on <i>The Sovereignty 0f God</i> through several editions. Mainly the book is taken up with the original and genuine text of Pink’s <i>The Sovereignty of God</i>. The Banner of Truth with Iain Murray and a small group, and in the years 1n 1961 made changes of the text. There were various matters. One had to do with criticism of Pink’s view of reprobation, which is discussed in the <i>Afterword</i>, which Brett and I have written. and of the criteria of responsibility in the phrase ‘natural and moral’ criteria for responsibility. Murray’s dissatisfactions were made public in two articles of the Banner of Truth magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> The role of this revision is discussed in p. 269 following section in the book, the title ‘The Differing Editions of <i>The Sovereignty of God</i>’’ These matters published the Banner Truth Edition, and to the public in two articles of the Banner of Truth magazine. In ‘A.W’ Pink’s s <i>Sovereignty of God</i> – Revised or Unrevised?’, and in the Banner of Truth, magazine 407-8 (August-September, 1997) ‘`Pink on <i>The Sovereignty of God</i> <i>,</i> Iain H. Murray ‘the <i>Banner of Trut</i>h magazine , 592 (January 2013), 6-17.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">One area of concern was that in the area of moral agency and responsibility was the use of that between natural and moral inability. Of this <i>The Sovereignty of God </i> 277 It was drawn the division was to be made by Jonathan Edwards ( 1703-1758) in his <i>Freedom of the Will</i>, from which Andrew Fuller (1754—181).was later to employ of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. I (I Corinthians 2, 14-16)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">A little further, in chapter three of I<i> Corinthians,</i> where Paul returns to the opening theme of the letter, that of the divisions at the Corinthian church’…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">For It had been reported to me by Chloe’s people and her group’ [mentioned] that there is quarrelling among you, my brothers, various groups [not mentioned}. This mentioned over groups giving them by this man and other such as ‘Paul’, or ‘Apollos’ or ‘Christ’. ‘I thank God that I baptised none except Crispus and `to `Gaius, and Stephanas’ household has a different group by a baptised of them one of these were Paul himself, mentioning Crispus and Gaius that he baptised, and others whose names he had forgotten. ‘For Christ did not send to baptise but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.’ ICor.1.10-17).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">To tolerate the making of several named boastful baptizers in the church was to imperil Christian unity, and to express a shallow wisdom. True wisdom , ‘the source of human life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’ (I Cor.1.30 ) Therefore , as it is written ,”Let the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord.’ (I Cor, 1 31). This assertion pivots the remainder of Paul’s gospel, between the wisdoms (plural) of this world, and the gospel which expresses the wisdom of God, one wisdom, Christ Jesus, the only source of spiritual wisdom, ‘the source of your life', in contrast with those of worldly wisdoms, bearing that the many philosophical schools flourishing in Corinth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Paul asserts that the gospel is the revelation of one wisdom, but it has been communicated to the Corinthians in the style of preaching (I Cor.2), and his style as a speaker. He was not an eloquent orator, he says, he had one topic, ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’, which he spoke not in self-confidence but in weakness, and in fear and much trembling, ‘not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ‘that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God’.(I Cor 2.5:)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">But I , brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it And even now you were not yet ready. And even now you are now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife, are you need For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh. Are you of the flesh not of he flesh and behaving only in a human way. For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’ and another’ ‘ I follow Apollos’, are you not being merely human?’. (I Cor. 3. 1-4.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">So for Paul there are two classes of people. The natural person ‘does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned’, (1 Cor 2. 14) The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. The two classes are the natural and spiritual which are exhaust the human race. Later theologians distinguished between not Paul but between natural impotency. John Owen distinguishes between the two classes of person , those natural and spiritual. (Owen, <i>Works </i>ed Goold 3. 266).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Two kinds of person<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Other important usages in which Paul uses ‘flesh’ in other letters add </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;">to fuller understanding of the two. For example, Rom. 7.5, 7.25, 8,3, 8.5, 8.8, Gal. 5.69 and the teaching of Christ in John’s gospel, are similar to those in I Corinthians - </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Such verses as ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Such people who were drawn by the Father, ‘And I will raise him up on the last day’, (John 6.44) and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;">John verses 5.44 <i>‘</i>How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?.’<i> </i>The first the impossibility of faith unless people are ‘drawn’ by the Father. Edwards simply a moral necessity examples, the faithfulness of the chaste woman and that of the infant child that Edwards. constructs of abilities. ('Section Pt 1, section 4, Of The Distinction of Natural and Moral and Necessity and Inability'). And in John <i> ‘yet you refuse to come to that you may have life’. I do not receive glory from people But I know that you do have the love of God within you. ‘(5.44?). </i> These are instances of moral ability and inability, usually cases of physical defection. But these are not exhaustive of ‘natural or “moral’. By now, the adjective word ‘natural’ refers to many differences. Owen himself says ‘It is pretended and pleaded by some in these day. Paul says the ‘the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them are spiritually discerned’. Paul uses the terms ‘the natural person’ and ‘ the spiritual person’ (I Cor.2. 14f).. Owen discusses the ‘natural man’ operating his own day that upon an apprehension’ in the works and light of nature of the goodness of God, men without any other advantages love him above all, and be accepted with him. (Owen, <i>Works</i> ed. Goold, III 268, 272,) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;">In Paul’s day the scope of the term ‘natural’ is not 'spiritual' of the gospel but natural theology. How much more the width in our day!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Natural’ is an expansive adjective, and ‘moral’ too. This brings us to our use of ‘natural’ and 'moral' in its various kinds in religion in the modern culture of today. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: yellow; font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Arthur W. Pink, <i>The Sovereignty of God</i>, ‘<i>Afterwords</i>’,Paul Helm and Brett Lee- Price, Tulip Publishing, 2022, Tulip Publishing, 300.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""></a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div id="ftn2"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""></a><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-90517837126736014362022-09-08T14:37:00.004+01:002022-11-17T17:39:08.535+01:00One-sex marriage, a figment of the imagination<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Last time we looked at what Jesus, God Incarnate, taught when questioned by Pharisees as to marriage, and later in the conversation, with divorce and with the status of eunuchs, in which he taught there are three kinds of eunuchs, Here, rther lately, are further thoughts.</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Two and one </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Jesus seems to have defended his view of marriage by citing Genesis 2 That in itself is important. Human men and women can multiply. His authority is not like a doctor or an engineer for Jesus Christ was not such , but he is the Incarnate God, in parity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as the opening of the words of the Bible shows, and the opening words of John's Gospel. Moreover, he came to be incarnate in order of the sacrifice for sin, and who will judge us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">He was God incarnate. A true Christian can use His words are proof of the first couple. ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said ‘ therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh.’</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">. (Matthew 19.5-6) flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> This is expressed by the two havjng ‘knowledge’ Which language of Jesus in Matthew 19. Women are not by made by men…..this there is not two men, but ‘one flesh’ for the couple, Matthew19.5, an expression that recurs with Paul in Ephesian 5…., and the account of Jesus as the Lord of the church, as well as the visit with his disciples at the wedding at Cana. (John 2. 1-12)Such ‘knowledge’ is not purely cognitive, but intimately united. Created ‘in the image of God, male and female he created them. Gen. 1.27.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> ‘Same sex marriage’, is not of a union of male and a female, a man and woman in the thinking about regard themselves’ but of a man and a woman.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> Among these believers who are currently tempted by same-sex marriage notwithstanding, being members of ‘mainstream’ churches, the Church England and Baptists or ‘general Baptists’ forming the Baptist Union are Trinitarians, not rationalists or speculators. But why do they subscribe? It seems that today the readership of their newspapers are being egged on to ‘same-sex’ marriages because they are popular in ‘culture’ .From the time of the Enlightenment (at least) men and women have reinterpreted the Gospel in harmonisation, the history of this programme forms a sad museum. But in the marriage of the same sex those have destroyed an basic Christian rite, ruined by the morality or immorality of taking in the culture of the day. </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">.But the one can play the role of the other, not a contradictory one, but a complementary one. The man and woman have different physical identity. To deny this is a kind of category mistake. These have physical differences, as the same sex people achieve Lionel Shriver in her piece in the ‘Good riddance to the Tavistock’ <i>The Spectator,</i> (6 August2022 p.26 ). one flesh is joined together by God the Creator, for the life of their flesh united, and therefore inseparable also as a married couple, a new person in new flesh. As Shriver says ‘Personally, whenever I’m confused about which sex I am, I pull down my pants’. The union of Adam and Eve was a similar one of two similar physically-real partners. Knowledge of Adam 4.1. and later Cain and Abel ch. 4. And again, Seth 4.25f.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">It is extraordinary that people who are Christians come to advocate same sex- marriage when the opposite is both stated so clear in Scripture by their Saviour and Lord when it is so clearly a male-female union.. The unclothed first pair were quick to ‘know’ each other. See Gen. 4.1 ‘Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord’ (Gen.4.1)</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> This intimacy as in marriage until Paul’s teaching, and the Christ as head of the church in each Christian. 1 Cor.7.17f. See the <i>Song of Solomon</i>. This must also be same a normal marriage.</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">When Eve is created, she has a body distinctly to that of Adam. Adam when Eve is created, there are different sexes, and experience of intimacy, as does of their different physical shape. One might note that the newly created Eve noted the shape of Adam’s, as different from their which makes their difference in shape. At least he or she is not a ‘partner’ in the elastic, euphemistic, modern sense.</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">This is by no means a sinless culture from the first couple., of course, as is shown by the first couple’s ‘Fall’, and the character of least one of their children. This should remind us that one important purpose in marriage is the wonder of bringing up children. So marriage is not the result of some loose ‘partnership’, but leads to sexual events of intercourse which normally breed a son or daughter This is expressed by Jesus as the couple of one or more as the couple grow ‘one flesh’. (Matthew 19.6) a child of one parent is equally the other.</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Same sex marriage is a dead loss of a Christian marriage from these points.</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-30889562450166602922022-07-31T13:39:00.006+01:002022-08-01T08:22:35.384+01:00Matthew 19 and same-sex marriage<div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDIrDlksKPn1Ohcde5PMrKbT1NUOM0n_JVGV2W3lkANgqqFq8EhpJAiA_ANYDisRvwPBdCEJWu4uNuk_rK9tl9KwF1TgVUQHNOWXKrZRvvNR_T2h6VipJFbOFrDFhCo1cDLq9miQRUg-gxMx9r7gvTbp40_MURvqSve9xUUnelFB-3SAIZpg" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDIrDlksKPn1Ohcde5PMrKbT1NUOM0n_JVGV2W3lkANgqqFq8EhpJAiA_ANYDisRvwPBdCEJWu4uNuk_rK9tl9KwF1TgVUQHNOWXKrZRvvNR_T2h6VipJFbOFrDFhCo1cDLq9miQRUg-gxMx9r7gvTbp40_MURvqSve9xUUnelFB-3SAIZpg" width="320" /></a></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Matthew 19, and same-sex wedding</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">In the Gospel in chapterMatthew chapter 19 , Jesus Christ stated in clear language, that marriage between a man and a woman was integral to the creation. On this occasion, Christ was discussing divorce with the Pharisees. In answer to the question. Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any ? Jesus answered:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Have you not read that who created them from the beginning made them male and female, .....‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and to his wife, and they shall become one flesh?’ (v.5-6)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">This is a clearly a reference to Genesis 2, and it covers both Gentiles and Jews…. Jesus implies that this arrangement was difficult to carry on wives ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.... And I say to you who ever divorces his wife , except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commit adultery’(v.9).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">But, he said to them, there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there eunuchs who have been eunuchs by men made eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs, who have made eunuchs, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. (v. 12) It appears that these cases put in peril Christ’s teaching the difference between men and women in marriage. (Matthew 19.12 -22.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Jesus did not only teach parables to his hearers, but engaged his opponents in other theological and moral matters. In Matthew 22, Jesus was answering the questions of the Sadducees who say ‘that there is no resurrection , and they asked him a question’ to which Christ gave them a full response. (Matt. 22-33.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Here in, many years later, the state of two Christian groups in England: the Church of England, the group who are a state Christian denomination, and the Baptists. These are the historic congregations, yet there are other, more conservative Baptistic groups.. Each of these are under the shadow or jeopardy due to the same-sex couples allowable according to the Act of 2013.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">The Church of England observes, that The </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Episcopal</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> Church in the U.S. has allowed </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">same</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">-</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">sex marriage</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> since 2015, and the Scottish </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Episcopa<b>l</b></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> Church has allowed </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">same</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">-</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">sex marriage</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> since 2017. But, until the present, the Church of England continues the historic position, Jesus’ position.and to oppose same-sex.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">More of Baptist and Church of England journalism</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #70757a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Consider some Top stories in this situation –</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span lang="EN-US">‘</span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Justin Welby forced to allow Anglican bishops to reject statement on sexuality’. And, ‘</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">there are motions to oppose same-sex marriage forces rethink of Anglican summit’. This is the problem the church finds itself currently. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">What of Baptists and same-sex marriage? </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">because of the independence of their congregations, one could envisage, different positions without splitting the Denomination.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">The Baptists During their Assembly to 2013 (following the legal change), have launched a series of conversations that have since taken place throughout our union, in churches, associations and colleges on the issues around the registration of Baptist church buildings for the purpose of holding same sex marriage services. .<br /> <br />The issues have also been considered in meetings of their Council (in November 2013, `November 2013 and March 2014, and March 2016. and at many meetings of Team Leaders and the Baptist Steering Group.’</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> <br />At Assembly 2014 an update of our process was shared and the following was offered on behalf of the Baptist Steering Group to express where we were up to on the journey. [To make room for Act 2013] This served as a backdrop to the continuing conversations and the way we sought to behave as Baptists Together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br />During Assembly 2013 we launched a series of conversations that have since taken place throughout our union, in churches, associations and colleges on the issues around the registration of Baptist church buildings for the purpose of holding same sex marriage services. There is a breadth of opinion in our union on these issues, as can be seen in the responses received<br /> <br />They stated then: ‘</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">As a union of churches in covenant together we will respect the differences on this issue which both enrich us and potentially could divide as we seek to live in fellowship under the direction of our Declaration of Principle ‘That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His Laws’<span style="color: #414141;"> </span>Upholding the liberty of a local church to determine its own mind on this matter, in accordance with our Declaration of Principle, we also recognise the freedom of a minister to respond to the wishes of their church, where their conscience permits, without breach of disciplinary guidelines.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /> We affirm the traditionally accepted Biblical understanding of Christian marriage, as a union between a man and a woman, as the continuing foundation of belief in our Baptist Churches a Baptist minister is required to live and work within the guidelines adopted by the Baptist Union of Great Britain regarding sexuality and the ministry that include ‘a sexual relationship outside of Christian marriage (as defined between a man and a woman) is deemed conduct unbecoming for a minister’. And in 2014 it was asserted, ‘A Baptist minister is required to live and work within the guidelines adopted by the Baptist Union of Great Britain regarding sexuality and the ministry that include ‘a sexual relationship outside of Christian marriage (as defined between a man and a woman) is deemed conduct unbecoming for a minister’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">From this it seems that the future sees each Baptist independent congregation might to decide itself whether to uphold same sex marriage, or not.<span style="color: #414141;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">As a union of churches in covenant together we will respect the differences on this issue which both enrich us and potentially could divide as we seek to live in fellowship under the direction of our Declaration of Principle ‘That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His Laws.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">From this it seems that the future sees each Baptist independent congregation might to decide itself whether to uphold same sex marriage, or not.<span style="color: #414141;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">As a union of churches in covenant together we will respect the differences on this issue which both enrich us and potentially could divide as we seek to live in fellowship under the direction of our Declaration of Principle ‘That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His Laws.’<br /> <br />Upholding the liberty of a local church to determine its own mind on this matter, in accordance with our Declaration of Principle, we also recognise the freedom of a minister to respond to the wishes of their church, where their conscience permits, without breach of disciplinary guidelines.<br /> <br />We affirm the traditionally accepted Biblical understanding of Christian marriage, as a union between a man and a woman, as the continuing foundation of belief in our Baptist Churches.<br /> <br />So A Baptist minister is required to live and work within the guidelines adopted by the Baptist Union of Great Britain regarding sexuality and the ministry that include ‘a sexual relationship outside of Christian marriage (as defined between a man and a woman) is deemed conduct unbecoming for a minister’.<span style="color: #414141;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">And as a union of churches in covenant together we will respect the differences on this issue which both enrich us and potentially could divide as we seek to live in fellowship under the direction of our Declaration of Principle ‘That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His Laws.’<br /> <br />Upholding the liberty of a local church to determine its own mind on this matter, in accordance with our Declaration of Principle, we also recognise the freedom of a minister to respond to the wishes of their church, where their conscience permits, without breach of disciplinary guidelines.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">[I am grateful from the journalism cited in <i>Wikipedia</i> as the two English denominations wrestle in the difficulty of a looming of same-sex marriage.] <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Here are more headlines from the Baptist paper: ‘The Baptist Union to allow gay marriage ceremonies.’ ‘Baptist Union to allow gay marriage ceremonies’ .From these the Baptists making room for same sex activity, and perhaps marriage itself. From such headlines post-2013 against and pre-2013 provide a tendency to show that sex marriage in Baptism congregations is in the wind. There is evidence more recently that there is opposition of a group of Baptist ministers<i>.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10.8pt 1cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">The Baptist Union of Great Britain is to reconsider its commitment to one man, one woman marriage for its ministers under pressure from LGBT activists.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 10.8pt 1cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">In a letter to members of the Baptist Churches, the Union’s Core Leadership Team said it was “reflecting” on a request to allow ministers to marry someone of the same sex .Individual churches may choose to host same-sex weddings, but in rules for members of the Baptist ministry, same-sex marriage is deemed gross misconduct. General Secretary Lynn Green said the process had been triggered by “a letter signed by 70 people who are part of Baptists Together, the majority of whom are ministers”.According to the church’s Ministerial Recognition Rules, “sexual intercourse and other genital sexual activity outside of marriage (as defined exclusively as between a man and a woman)” is specifically forbidden.But signatories of the letter have demanded the phrase which defines marriage “exclusively as between a man and a woman” be dropped. Removing this phrase, Green explains, “would mean that a minister who is in a same-sex marriage would no longer be committing gross misconduct and lose their accreditation”. At the Baptist Council meeting in March, activists from pro-LGBT groups, including Affirm and Open Table, gave presentations to members promoting ‘equal marriage’ and ‘inclusivity’. The Core Leadership Team, Ministerial Recognition Committee and Trustees are currently deliberating on how to best respond to the request to abandon the biblical code of conduct for its ministers. A decision is not expected this year. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 10.8pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Conclusion</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 10.8pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Matthew 19 has the words of the Saviour, that a natural wedding ‘at the beginning’ of the race, in the account of Genesis 1, 24, which relates the Sixth Day of the Creation to the pair. That was and is a wedding of a man and a woman. But features from the journalistic news that we have been to find of Christian Protestant churches, they are on a road that modifies and qualifies the view of our Lord in an endeavour to shape Christian Marriage in the interests of a ‘Woke Theology’. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-13207648910751953652022-06-29T20:19:00.004+01:002022-07-01T08:24:48.963+01:00Virtues and Vices, 1 July 2022<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKLB2dGhi0kd_TCJhlHNZDFu1slbxgkcqNrPUcH-fNj32UqZlFgfK_SEwusBIvCejfmGT2se8a8I8qJDAjkiGL2ZZJS0bWDy3GCuoucuFHnYLAMRuvbdGyETKr6hlnjQ4zzCD6xlAZ-6n5cYhmjBw07jPPIB_LhzfGqKRdAblj7QTBGn9XsQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="155" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKLB2dGhi0kd_TCJhlHNZDFu1slbxgkcqNrPUcH-fNj32UqZlFgfK_SEwusBIvCejfmGT2se8a8I8qJDAjkiGL2ZZJS0bWDy3GCuoucuFHnYLAMRuvbdGyETKr6hlnjQ4zzCD6xlAZ-6n5cYhmjBw07jPPIB_LhzfGqKRdAblj7QTBGn9XsQ=w165-h240" width="165" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Edward Reynolds 1599 - 1676</i></div></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A feature of the Christian life is that the virtues of it are the result of the regeneration of God the Holy Spirit, and that they are revealed in bunches. Both are Peter in his first and second epistle, and Paul in several ways in his varied letters, takes this view<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So Peter states<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> ‘…..make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue , and virtue with knowledge , and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so short-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1.5-11)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Note that there is no mention over different classes of disciple. A virtue is a power of the soul (Note that for Peter, power, ‘divine power’) is the overall (v.2) source of progress in the Christian life. Various matters can go together. Peter mentions as a ‘bundle’ use of a string of powers, and sometimes some causes other virtues. Bt as we shall see, vices come in groups too.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So in Romans, for example, Here is one case, in 12. 9.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">‘Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour, Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.(12. 9-12) ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And in the Ephesians, ‘put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires , and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’.( 4.22 – 44). Contrasting with ‘all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another’, continued in chapter 5.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Christian virtues , sometimes they are explicitly the some model in Christ’s work. In these affections are produced. Affections from 12.10. Phil 2.1 2Peter 1.7. 1.5, various clustering as in Rom 12.9, 13.3, love 1 Cor 13, Eph 4.22, Philippians 2.3, 4,8.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The contrast between virtue and vices is signalled by The NT difference between the <i>affection</i> and <i>emotion </i>in such passages, as shown by Edward Reynolds, an influential member of the Westminster assembly, who in the 1660’s at the Restoration of the King Charles II conformed with the Church of England and became Bishop of Norwich. In his book on the emotions, <i>A Treatise on the Passions and Faculties of the Soul.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As we shall see, it seems to have been Reynolds to make a distinction between <i>affection</i>, for the sophisticated, and the <i>passion</i>, for the simple, as we shall see,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The way of the treating of the passions and affections Reynolds says,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For the corrupt effects of passion in general, because there are many more, because there may be a multiplicity as well of evil as of error, when there is but a unity of goodness and of truth, one amongst another; or in references to understanding, will, or body. The effects of them amongst themselves is in their mutual generating and nourishing of each other, as fear is wrought by love; and anger , by grief. p, 99 Reynolds (6.48’). He comes close to an ideological account of emotion .<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He goes on<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 49.65pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And it is true as well in man’s little commonwealth, as in greater states, that there are no more pestilent and pernicious disturbers of the public good, than those who are best qualified for service and employment, - if once they grow turbulent and mutinous, neglecting the common end, for their own private respects, and desirous to raised themselves upon public ruins. And, indeed, it is universally true, things most useful and excellent in their regularity, are most useful and excellent in their regularity, are most dangerous in their abuse. (<i>Treatise on the Passions and Faculties of the Soul. 6.38</i>)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 49.65pt;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For the apostles Peter and Paul, however, the Gospel and its virtues is not a ideology, propounding gentleness of character, contrasted with the ‘roughness’ of the character of the crowd. Not class struggle. (see the references to a quiet life I Tim. 2.2, I Peter 3.4, I Thess.4.11) These are the fruit of the Spirit and of Christ’s own example.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Owen provides something more acceptable:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The mortification of our affections towards these things, our love, desire and delight, will produce a moderation of passions about them, as fear, anger, sorrow and the like ; such will men be stirred up unto these changes, losses, crosses, which these things are subject unto….. When the mind is weaned from the world, and the things of it, it will be sedate, quiet, composed, not easily moved with the occurrences and occasions of life: it is dead unto them, and in a great measure unconcerned in them,. This is that “moderation” of mind wherein the apostle would have us excel. <a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Apothat Apostolic teaching about virtue and vice is about two cultures, the one generated by the Spirit, and the other the fruit of the flesh. This is a spiritual difference, not social or political, but religious. With Paul between………and Peter in I Peter 2.1, 12, and 4.3-4 , and 2 Peter 1.5 1.7, 2.14. And Paul, in Romans 12.10, and Philippians 2.3. and its vicious opposites, Ephesians 5. 3—11and Philippians 3 17-9, and Colossians chapter 3.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The following expressions are typical. Ephesians, 4.22…..’put off your own self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires’, and chapter 5. And ‘put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, and much of Colossians chapter 3, ‘meekness, and patience, bearing one another.’ And other similar Petrine passages, and in I Peter 4.7 and earlier I Peter. 2.11f.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">..<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt -2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br clear="all" /></span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> These passages are in Chapter 4 ‘The Powers and Faculties of the Soul’ by Paul Helm, <i>Human Nature from Calvin to Edwards</i>, (Reformed Heritage Books, 2018), particular pages 98-100.</span><span style="font-family: Geneva;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-30450679387080226882022-06-02T08:25:00.004+01:002022-06-02T13:36:40.384+01:00Joseph Truman's Discourse<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>In a life time of reading and collecting books, I have some favourites. One</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> of these is A Discourse of Natural and Moral Impotency a small book</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> by Joseph Truman. ‘late Minister near Nottingham’. He was born in</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> 1630 educated at Clare College Cambridge lived in Mansfield as a</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> minister there, then lost his position in the Ejection of Puritans in 1662</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, following not</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> reading common prayer and criticizing of the prayer book. He lived</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> then at Mansfield where he nonetheless attended the parish church</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> there. He died at 1671, about 40.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 28px;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">He published several books, one of which is republished<i> The Great Propitiation, Or, Christ Satisfaction and Man’s Justification by it upon his Faith that is Belief and Obedience to the Gospel Endeavored to be made Easily Intelligible….In some Sermons,</i> preached by Joseph Truman (London, 1672), with that date published after his death).It is i. facsimile in EEBO Editions in the “Early History of Religion”,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">One interesting fact about him was that he was friendly with Richard Baxter when a nonconformist, and this might that he may followed Baxter’s view of to a view of justification that is abased not only by faith in the Saviour, but is based on an individual’s piety. (There is no evidence of this in Truman’s sermons on Christ’s propitiation. But consistency was not a virtue of Baxter’s theology.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">His book on <i>Natural and Moral Impotency</i> shows an informal style which has a number of features, which may be due to the influence of the elder man on him. It had a conversational style, informal, and open, though he exhibits sometimes complication. Nevertheless, he is interesting. The book came into a second edition, with further material from his own hand before his death. He shows familiarity with scholastic terminology, as well as with Westminster confession sources, and with jurisprudence . It is not surprising that his nonconformity ‘was pleaded with the Justices, so well that he got off , though thevJustices were no great friends to Nonconformists’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">So the book can be read as an essay in late Puritan anthropology, ‘the common sentiments of men’, and especially the human will. Truman is saying that to speak of impotency only with study of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">This distinction of is of natural and moral impotency.is of such importance in Divinity, that they that shall speak of the Controversies hereby endeavoured to be cleared without keeping clear Notions, about this distinction, shall (though otherwise learned Fathers and Doctors) speak like children concerning them; and also that men of understandings, keeping to this distinction, may competently satisfy themselves and others, if willing to be satisfied in such Controversies as have posed the greatest wits and ‘Shollers’ [scholars] that keep to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">He puts up two verses ‘You will not come to me that you have Life (John 5.40) ‘No man can come to me except the Father, which sent me, draw him, (John 6.44) These are both cases of impotency, moral impotency. The first is an inability to come to `Christ, the second is a case of moral inability, of inability to come to me unless the Father on the last day will raise him up on the last day’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">These cases do not refer to broken legs or blindness, but inwards inability, the sort that Paul in I Corinthians 2.14, ‘the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, he is able to understand because they are spiritually discerned. ‘ Once again, a spirit that is impotency,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">‘a natural person’ not a physical lack, but whose entire powers of human nature is lacking. Truman (3)says ‘that distinction well understood, which is much insisted on by the <i>French </i>Protestant Divines, would much conduce herein, namely, the distinction of <i>Natural and Moral Impotency</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Truman’s distinction between different inabilities and their natural and moral kinds, involves questions of the law, which leads me to think that he was expert in it, and that it colors his discussion of the law in the matter of credit and debt, (10), and drunkenness (12-15) when drink may affect his reason, and a comparison to the wicked who do not. These legal discussions etc. Truman adds a third text from John’s Gospel, this time John 8.43, Christ speaking ‘Why do you not understand what I say ? `It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’a desires..’ Truman goes on you are so wicked, you are of such Devilish qualities’. (20)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">‘If they mean by these words, that the fault is, notwithstanding their Impotency, that they do not some other thing than that they some other thing than they have the have the Impotency to ;and so the meaning is. He hath as Impotency to something; but his fault is, that he doth not that which hath a power to do; and hath no Impotency at all to. First: This rather confirms what I am saying , yea overgoe’s me quite, as you will see. Secondly: This is no more to the purpose, than to say, A blind man is too blame for not hearing, because impotency is seeing, doth not hinder his hearing; yet this is apparently the chief Part of the meaning of this saying, as it is applied by those that use it. (20-1)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">This is Truman getting into his stride. It will be unfamiliar to those who are reading it for the first time. And I hope to reproduce short passages from later on in the book. And if you come across Truman’s <i>Discourse, </i>you will possess a little treasure<i>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 20px; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-21123375150787022312022-05-01T16:07:00.000+00:002022-05-02T06:18:58.995+00:00John Owen, High Calvinist<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl0IXyo8jXDi6XEA1luYF3wXPlHVmbNn7IiX5j214R81qj-gSLx7ZC7ZAAc6SjlkR-IhwT-g4ASAFzM2GqcfWGulcrWAntPtbpKENiyKHaDD1SXOUgTFmiibvKbMjpwB3GgjFQ6GK7dd-0_fAn2RWtETsjVzyoPFbw8uJdFcoWFWnglp6usA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="258" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl0IXyo8jXDi6XEA1luYF3wXPlHVmbNn7IiX5j214R81qj-gSLx7ZC7ZAAc6SjlkR-IhwT-g4ASAFzM2GqcfWGulcrWAntPtbpKENiyKHaDD1SXOUgTFmiibvKbMjpwB3GgjFQ6GK7dd-0_fAn2RWtETsjVzyoPFbw8uJdFcoWFWnglp6usA" width="316" /></a></span></div><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>John Owen, (1616-1683), the High Calvinist</i></div></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Last time
we extracted 2 sections of Dr Owen’s work on the Holy Spirit. The first was a
statement of the stance before God of the unregenerate, which he used I
Corinthians 2 to make clear the second of how those called to preach and others to the regenerate. It is this that attracted me first. Dr Owen is
clearly a Calvinist, or Augustinian – the entirety of volume 3 makes this
clear, but his opening of the section 2 (p.295) make clear his opposition to any
form of hyper – Calvinism.)See 'John Owen , the Preacher'.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><u>The 2008
Articles of the Gospel Stand Strict and Particular Baptists</u></p><p class="MsoNormal">24 Gospel
Invitations We believe that the invitations of the Gospel, being spirit
and life*, are intended only for those who have been made by the blessed Spirit
to feel their lost state as sinners and their need of Christ as their Saviour,
and to repent of and forsake their sins. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">26 Duty Faith and
Duty Repentance Denied<span style="font-size: 12px;">. </span></span>We deny duty faith and duty repentance – these terms signifying
that it is every man’s duty to spiritually and savingly repent and believe<span style="mso-text-raise: 5.0pt; position: relative; top: -5pt;">1</span>. We deny
also that there is any capability in man by nature to any spiritual good
whatever. So that we reject the doctrine that men in a state of nature should
be exhorted to believe in or turn to God<span style="mso-text-raise: 5.0pt; position: relative; top: -5pt;">2</span>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">29 Indiscriminate
Offers of Grace Denied</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While we believe that the Gospel is to be preached in or
proclaimed to all the world, as in Mark 16. 15, we deny offers of grace; that
is to say, that the gospel is to be offered indiscriminately to all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">32<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Preaching of the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">We believe that it would be unsafe, from the brief records we have
of the way in which the apostles, under the immediate direction of the Lord,
addressed their hearers in certain special cases and circumstances, to derive
absolute and universal rules for ministerial addresses in the present day under
widely- different circumstances. And we further believe that an assumption that
others have been inspired as the apostles were has led to the grossest errors
amongst both Romanists and professed Protestants.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Such articles encourage passivity</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span style="text-align: left;">Hyper-Calvinism developed in the latter part of the 17</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;">
century and the first half of the 18</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;"> century, a time when</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">the Protestant Christians were granted
freedom of worship in the 1689? The Calvinists were mainly either Presbyterians
or Congregational and Baptist. There were ‘Calvinists’ within them all. They
were resistant to whose ministry included were</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes; text-align: left;">
</span><span style="text-align: left;">invitations to. Christ. For ‘Calvinists’ such gospel invitations ‘upset’
their understanding of God’s eternal will. Not only election and predestination,
added to the godhead itself and Christ’s eternal divinity particularly the work
of Goodwin Using. Answer: Christ’s eternal will would keep this the divine
eternal will</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">was intact. So the
unconverted were</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">directed to one or
other of this eternal will of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Peter Toon’s small book on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hyper
-Calvinism</i> (Olive Tree, 1967) surprisingly remains a worthwhile account of
these developments, with accounts of individuals and their writings,
particularly Chapter `VI with its accounts of Richard Davis, John Brine and
John Gill, and the following chapter on God’s eternal decrees and covenants,
supplementing by John Skepp and Joseph Hussey. These were days of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shiftings between views. The internal acts of
God 108 his immutability and covenants. Early reference 74 & 76. Thomas Goodwin
76-77, who was prominent in discussion on eternal justification<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Toon has the following paragraphs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt 1cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">First,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we may note that after the Restoration in 1660
orthodox Calvinism became, as it were, a cause under siege.The majority<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Puritans<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>who were orthodox left the Church of England in 1662 to become conform
Nonconformists. Thus the religious leadership of the nation was lodged in the
hands of men who were either Arminian or moderately Calvinistic in theology.
The ejected<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ministers,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being Nonconformists,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were placed under<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>harsh and cruel restrictions until 1688 and
this severely curtailed their influence<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>upon the religious thought<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the
nation. As the older men<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>died their
places were taken by younger men who had been educated under liberalising
influences in Holland and so a Moderated Calvinism gradually became popular,
especially amongst<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Presbyterian
Dissenters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the years passed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by High Calvinism became more and more the
sole preserve<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the Independents and
the particular Baptists. The Antinomian<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>controversy of the 1690s served to widen the gap between High Calvinism
and Moderated Calvinism, and as the eighteenth century passed by, High
Calvinism became in the main, the faith of the poorly-educated Independents and
Baptists.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt 1cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">These men who clung
to the doctrine of High Calvinism saw themselves as a group preserved by God in
an apostate age<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to defend “the faith
once delivered to the saints”. Their time was taken up by the defence of their
faith and it was in this atmosphere of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>course under siege<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
Hyper-Calvinism was born and nurtured. (146-7)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This is a plausible picture, such as was being written by John
Owen at that time, as that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the High
Calvinism became ‘eternalised’, into Hyper-Calvinism, to protect the saints
against Arminianism] Let Toon put it in more detail again: often made no
distinction between <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt 1cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It was a system of
doctrines of God, of man and grace, which was framed to exalt the honour and
glory of God and did so at the expense<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of minimising the moral and spiritual responsibility of glory of sinners
to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God. It placed excessive emphasis on
the immanent acts of God,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- eternal
justification,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eternal adoption and the
eternal covenant of grace. (144) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt 1cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In practice this<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meant that “Christ and Him crucified”, the
central message of the apostles, was obscured.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Let us finally get a closer statement of Hyper Calvinism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hyper Calvinist
Baptists. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Calvinist Baptists, Protestants,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>confess justification but not justification <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>faith</i>. But in Romans 4
justification is by faith, believing God, see the verses in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Romans 4, verses 3, 5 (twice), 9,11,12, 16,
18, 19, 20, 22, 24 which continues through chapter 5. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In Owen’s volume on justification (in volume V of his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Works</i> ed. W.H. Goold, written in 1677
the full title was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Doctrine of
Justification by Faith<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>through the
Imputation of the Righteousness, of Christ; Explained, Confirmed, and
Vindicated’</i>. Despite its thoroughness of the treatment, the phrase of ‘eternal justification’
is utterly absent. Owen is a notable Protestant, showing to be a High Calvinist.
Owen is cited when replied to `Mr Baxter, who charged him with holding eternal
justification: I neither am, nor ever was of that judgment; though as it may be
explained `I know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">better</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wiser</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and more learned </i>men than myself…..’’(Gill. Bk.II Ch.V, 208)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is difficult if we say that ‘internal and
immanent acts’, that is, acts of the same eternality of God as his existence
and essence, it becomes difficult to stop oneself being persuaded that God’s
eternality embraces everything. God’s eternality is one thing, events in time
another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Nonetheless, Gill has a long discussion in support of eternal
justification in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Body of Doctrinal
and Practical Divinity. (</i>published in 1769-1770) He claims that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Faith is not the cause<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but an effect of justification’. Calvin used
the expression ‘instrumental cause by faith. faith’. In 200, To dominate
discussion with internal and immanent acts of God taken up in the mind of God from
eternity, and which abide in his will: in which they have their complete <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">esse</i>, or being as eternal election
has,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being of the same kind and nature
(Eph. 1 4-6). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gill continues ‘It is an
act that does not first take place in time, or as sat believing – 1. Faith is
not the cause of it in any sense; it is the moving<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cause, that is the free grace of God. But
then how are we to understand growth in grace, and the adorning of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>graces, as the product of the Spirit not in
eternity, but in time.</span>There is little of the mysteriousness of the eternal God and his moment-by-moment creation. Little of Paul' ''Oh! the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchaBle are hisjudgments and how inscrutable ways! (Rom.10.33. There is a touch of rationalism in John Gill, I'm afraid.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">So,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eternal justification
is the mark of Hyper-Calvinism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> ( I was surprised to discover that <i>Peter Toon, Hyper-Calvinism</i>, Olive Tree, 1967, is still for sale via Amazon)</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-81757934820128646272022-04-01T10:30:00.004+00:002022-04-01T10:32:35.291+00:00John Owen ,the Preacher, <p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>741</o:Words>
<o:Characters>4228</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>35</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>9</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>4960</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p align="center" class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">JOHN OWEN, PREACHER<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">John Owen spent a good deal of his writing and preaching in
Restoration England as the pastor of….. .He laboured to write on the Holy
Spirit, in several<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>books, the chief which
was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Discourse Concerning the Holy
Spirit</i> (1674) . In 1673, 47<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>years old, he was working his mammoth works
on the Holy Spirit which are gathered in chapter 3 of the Goold edition
of his works. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died in 1683. For him
the role of the Spirit is basically the renewal and regeneration of unregenerate, fallen, people,
including the preaching of the Gospel <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as
the means Christ has made redemption<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for
the elect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">THE FIRST PASSAGE</span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the page 295 (he had said) , <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Preachers
of the gospel</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and others have sufficient warrant to press upon all men the
duties of faith, repentance</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and obedience, although they know that in themselves they
have not a sufficiency of ability for their due performance, for______(1)</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
is the will and command of God</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">that
so they should do, and that is the rule all our duties. They are not to
consider what men can do or will do, what</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God
requires.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To make</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a judgment of man’s ability, and to accommodate the commands
of God unto them accordingly, is not committed unto any of the sons of men. (2)
They have a</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">double end</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in pressing on men the observance of duties, with a supposition of
the state of impotency</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">described :</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">----- <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[1]
to prevent them from such</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">courses of sin</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as would harden them, and so render their conversion more difficult,
if not desperate. [2] To exercise a means</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">appointed
of</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God for their</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">conversion,</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or the communication of saving grace unto them. Such are
God’s commands, and such are the duties required of them. In and by them God
doth use to communicate of his grace unto the souls of men; not with respect
them as their duties, but as they are ways appointed and sanctified by him unto
such ends. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
hence it follows that even such duties as are vitiated in their performance,
yet are of advantage unto them by whom that are performed; for -- 1</span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">st</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">attendance unto them they are preserved from many sins. 2</span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">d</span></i></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">an
especial manner from the great sin of despising God, which ends commonly in
that which is unpardonable. 3</span></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">d</span></i></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are hereby made useful unto others, and many ends of God’s glory
in the world. 4</span></span><span class="s3"><i><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">th</span></sup></i></span><span class="s3"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></span><span class="s2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They are kept in God’s way,
wherein they may gradually be brought over unto a real conversion unto him.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (</span><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Owen</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s6"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Works</span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">III,
295)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THE SECOND PASSAGE</span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which occurs in the book before the one just referred to, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is an account of the temperament of an unregenerate
person. As follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">There is in the minds of
unregenerate persons a moral impotency, which is reflected on them greatly</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">from the will and affections, whence the mind
never</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">will receive spiritual things, - that
is, it will always and unchangeably reject and refuse them, - and that because
of various lusts corruptions, and prejudices invincibly fixed in them, causing
them to look on them as foolishness.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Hence it will</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">come to pass that
no man shall be judged and perish at the last day merely on account of his
natural impotency. Every one to whom the gospel hath been preached, and by whom
it is refused, shall be convinced of positive actings of their minds, rejecting
the gospel from the love of self, sin, and the world. Thus our Saviour tells
the Jews that “no man can come unto him, except the Father draw him John vi 44.
Such is their natural</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">impotency that
they cannot. Nor is it to be cured but by an immediate divine instruction or
illumination; as it is written, ’They shall be all taught of God, verse45. But
this is not t all he tells them elsewhere, “Ye will not come to me that</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">ye might have life’, (John 6. 44) chapter.III
267.</span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><br /></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
is usual it is necessary to take<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a deep
breath before the reading and the thinking of Owen. But one is repaid by a
richness, or condensation. So reading these passages should<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be undertaken more than once. His passage was based on I Corinthians 2.Here Paul expounds what he calls 'the natural man'. He starts by his policy as a preacher, 'For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified....and my speech and my message were. not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God' I Cor 2.4, 'we impart a secret and and hidden wisdom of God (1 Cor. 2. 7)...we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God...we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit. And the apex of Paul's argument: 'The natural does not accept the things of the Spirit of God he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned......(I Cor 2.14, ) Owen had absorbed this and it warranted him saying in his earlier passage that the unregenerate possess 'a <i>moral impotency</i> which is reflected on them greatly from the will and affections, whence the mind (of the unregenerate) never will receive spiritual things...(III 267) </span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The unregenerate suffer from a moral impotency, yet later Owen advocates that preachers of the gospel must press upon all men, the duties of faith, repentance and obedience.</span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next time I hope to take the answer of what otherwise is a conjundrum. How can the blind see? How can a person be born again?</span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 1cm;"><span class="s5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="s4" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>625</o:Words>
<o:Characters>3568</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>29</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>8</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>4185</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-63876392325921212962022-02-28T17:02:00.003+01:002022-05-20T12:54:10.643+01:00Conscience and God's grace<p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1050</o:Words>
<o:Characters>5991</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>49</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>14</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>7027</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Conscience and God’s grace<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">In our last article, ‘The Conscience’, I ended it with the early
preaching of Christ and of his cousin,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>John the Baptist, calling their hearers to repentance. To come to
repentance is to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>become aware of one’s
sin, and to resolve to keep <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>certain of
the Lord’s commandments, which is the penitent hearer is begins<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the process in which begin a new course of
life. Currently the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prime Minister, who
is a great one for not to telling the truth, cancels this by an ‘apology’, the
uttering of a form of words, which makes the one offended to which is meant to
a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>provide his or her forgiveness. Well,
an apology of this kind, is something,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>but it is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not much. The Bible
does not have much or nothing at all for our apologies. The penitent are
‘pricked’, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their minds, (Acts 2.37, 9.5)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">What ‘pricks’? the conscience. The ‘prick’ is a sign of penitence, a
reaction of the conscience, which is worth a thousand apologies. For it is the
mark of life, showing that the person is not ‘hardened’, but able to exhibit
‘in the Spirit that this person is beginning renewed. More than this, Paul says
that these pricks have their character of sorrow. And they are signs of a new
creation of God the Holy Spirit. He should know, who was to persecute Christians,
he told to King Agrippa, how he Lord said to Dal of Tarsus ‘it is hard for you
to kick against the pricks’. (Acts 26 .14) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Conscience and Consciousness<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Conscience’, the word, is not a technical theological term in the NT,
but a term that means literally,’ fellow-knowledge with oneself’, a state of
self-knowledge, an awareness of that person’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>self, and appropriated in the OT as an
expression (or power) of the ‘heart’ Paul and the writer of the Hebrews make
clear. It is a climax of the writer, showing that Christ’ s work of the cross
and resurrection. outshone the Old Testament revelation of the temple<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Hebrews, 9.14, 10.2, 10.22, and 3.18)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">So in the Christian, the conscience has to do with godliness. It shows
us to be part of the image of God in us, unlike the beasts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pricks of the conscience are a big deal. For
Saul it was the consequence of the voice of the risen Jesus. And, accompanied
by a bright light, It was the summons of the Lord himself. God is the one who
was calling. In his great book on the work of the Holy Spirit, John Owen draws
the distinction between holiness and morality. We see that we are deep here in
the work of the Spirit in Holiness, in territory when it makes sense to ‘be
imitators of God’ (5.1), or godly. This is the gift of God’s grace, not of our
education. It is light, not darkness, (2Cor. 4.6)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">There is a difference between the activities of the conscience. Some
activities do not have to do with grace, but with the habits that we might have
developed about friendships, habits of our development via education, values
and places that we come to have, and so on. They might be called non-theistic
values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone has myriads of such beliefs,
or of practical matters, each which set up ‘consciences’, if and until they
change, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and their conscience takes a different
‘shape’, having different changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
take an everyday example. We paint the house with brushes, but then it is
suggested by someone the use of rollers are better, which are then regarded as
superior to what had been before. So the skill of painting is changed. So
almost every activity has a ‘shape’ of do’s and don’ts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">For Christians , and for all created in God’s image through the work
of the Spirit., the conscience has to do with the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>law of God, the 10 Commandments, and also with
relate to each other, there are ladders of ‘moving up’ and there are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>snakes of sliding down. I shall try to
illustrate these from Scripture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The Fall is the chief ‘slide’ in the history of humankind.. Men and
women, created<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>directly by the Lord,
there was rebellion. Gen 3.1-4,8, and that change, the result of deception by
the serpent, changed the relation of the first pair altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But their conscious was at work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Conscience in the Letter to the Hebrews<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Contrast this with the language of the writer of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hebrews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we saw there are three places in which the
conscience is referred to, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at the climax
at the writer(was it Paul?). Much of the Letter to the Hebrews<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is taken to the superiority of Christ’s work to
the religion of the OT. He shows this in various ways. Christ is not a human
priest, a Levite, but one who is after the order of Melchizedek (ch.5), not a
man but the Son of God, in a unique priesthood. His was taken in a sacrifice,
and by his death and resurrection <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>’he is
the mediator of a new covenant’. <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">‘</span>Christ’s was a ‘death that redeems them from the transgressions
committed under the first covenant repeatedly, many times. But Christ entered
‘once for all into<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the holy places, not
by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus
securing an eternal redemption……how much more will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, purify our conscience</i> from dead works
to serve the living God’. (ch.9) This is the first of several references to our
consciences in referring to the redemption by Christ. ‘that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cannot perfect the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> conscience <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>of the
worshipper’ <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">(</span>9.9, 9.14,
10.2), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘otherwise, would they not have
ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed would no
longer have any <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consciousness</i> of
sin?’ Here<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the KJV translates ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">conscience</i>’ In 10.22, whereas the
ESV<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>uses <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘consciousness’</i> showing the close relation of the two. `And <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>further, ‘let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">conscience</i> and our bodies washed with
pure water’ and lastly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“pray for us, for
we are sure that we have a clear <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">conscience</i>,
desiring to act honourably in all things’. 13.16. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">We have seen the close relation there is between our conscience and
our consciousness. The relation between the conscience<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the ‘ heart’, is also shown, and this <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>suggests depth. If we examine our consciences
then we have a direct track to ourselves and the Iiving God., the law revealed
the inwardness of the law with John the Baptist, ch.3 of Matthew, continued
into the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes and then the law more explicitly,
the golden rule 6.13 this is a message from God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">How to sharpen one’s conscience <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">How do we examine ourselves in our faith? The conscience takes us
deep, to our heart. Try some passages of Paul,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>say, Chapter 4 of Ephesians , or Romans 12. We are educated by the list
of Christian values that Paul presents, from v.25, on falsehood, and speaking
the truth. The control of anger, corrupting talk, building up, not grieving the
Holy Spirit,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bitterness, wrath and
anger. But kindness to others, forgiving others as we have been forgiven by
God. And so. As you measure yourself, your conscience pricks, and gives a
God-given reflection, a sign of regenerate, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>if you are regenerate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is more in Chapter 5 of Ephesians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-54006682111243707492022-02-01T09:11:00.000+01:002022-02-03T16:01:14.188+01:00Conscience <p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1192</o:Words>
<o:Characters>6801</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>56</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>15</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>7978</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">It is not easy to find a discussion of the conscience. Sermons in it are rare, and your church group. But it is a
vital part of what Scripture<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>calls ‘the
heart’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is seen in the make-up of men
and women, created in the image of God. Its awareness takes us into the depth
of a person, into what he or she is central and of the greatest values to that
person, and in other expressions not so centrally. Yet it is also capable of behaving
according to a person’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>history.
‘Conscience’ is mentioned in Scripture about forty times. It presents an index of
the heart as strong, according to what that person<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>understands at a time, and weaker, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> and </span>weak and strong together about varied things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> I shall<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>illustrate this in a
number of different cases of the working conscience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the account of the creation of the human race in Genesis 2, the
pair is quickly seen to have a working of the conscience of each. The first
thing we learn from their Creator is 2.16, ‘ and the Lord God commanded the man,
saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’. (Gen.
2. 19) The creation of Eve, and of other divine laws, for example, that a man
shall leave his father and his mother, and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh’,(This </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">is
endorsed word for word by Jesus.( Mark</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">10.7 Matt 19.5, 6.) Gen. 3 can be taken as a first tussle over the
conscience of the pair.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Our consciences are fallen, affected by what is sinful as well as the
truth. You might say its character is affected not only by the will of God, but
by the influences of what we call the ‘culture’ and its significant outlook,
not the holy only issues , but by the unholy also. It is the positive or
negative about from the matters that are important, as well as in matters are
of little worth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The business of conscience has to</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">do with normative side of our minds. Our
minds through the senses, and the intellect, are mainly cognitive, having to do
with forming opinions, beliefs, knowledge, as particular, or general. The
conscience has to do with what be called the moral views, on which the
conscience forms, underlining their value, central and peripheral, depending on
the importance of the sources of various</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">kinds, giving rise to the judgments of the conscience. At any one time
the conscience may have scores of judgments, some important and some trivial,
contributing to that person’s moral self, changing as the person judges each of
these as he passes through phases as he is educated, matures, and so on. The
self, via its states of the conscience will be awareness of some central, others
changing, some peripheral. It takes on cultural in the widest sense, in a
culture that has been</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">affected by
John</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Stuart Mill, Karl</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Marx, Sigmund Freud and Critical Theory, some
current examples. Paul comments the process in Romans 2.15 of the growth by
idols by ‘Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of
the immortal</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">God for images resembling
mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Echoes of early Genesis!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Besides the occurrence of the word ‘conscience’ in Scripture we see
the conscience operating in various places, as the ‘heart’ Heart p.110, and he
place of the law in it</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">( Jer 17.1
Nathan’s parable( l Sam 24.10). This is a vivid example as the change and aware
of the conscience, aroused by Nathan’s parable of the poor man with one sheep,
who was deprived of it by a the richer man,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">leading to David’s reaction,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to
Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he
shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had
no pity’, and Nathan retorted, ‘You are the man’, highlighting his deprivation
of Bathsheba for himself, and thus</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">depriving from her husband Uriah the Hittite.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the New Testament, 1 Corinth. 8.10, conscience is characterized by
Paul as ‘weak’.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">8.12 when the food is
offered to an idol. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">When Paul ate at
lunch, there may have been present another person of different convictions. He
mentions a fellow eater who gave it to an idol. But Paul has another judgment,
as a Christian, the belief that the idols have ‘no real existence’ while ‘for
us ‘there</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">there is one God , the Father,
from whom are all things and whom are all things</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">and for whom we exist, and one Lord, through
whom all things and through whom we exist’.(8.6.). Now carefully note what</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Paul continues,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘However, not all possess this knowledge’…. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">‘But some, through former association with
idols, eat food to an idol, and their conscience is weak, is defiled’</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">(v.7).
Here is the evidence that Paul has working of consciences that are strong, and
some that are weak.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">But it is not as simple as that, for Paul goes on ‘But take care that
this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For
if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged? If his conscience is
weak, to eat blood offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person
is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">So we see Paul has the idea of a weak conscience, one that involves
false beliefs i.e. The conscience must be rid of such beliefs. Paul returns to
the problem again at l Corinthians 10. 25 – 30. Bavinck calls the modern view
the ‘empirical conscience’ . The conscience is fallen, too, subject to the
weakening and renewing by the help of God’s grace for every child of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In Hebrews, the conscience appears in connection with the writer’s
argument regarding worship of the Old Testament, the contrast between temple
sacrifice, to the final sacrifice of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘by this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way
into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still
standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this
arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the
conscience of the worshipper, but deal only with food and drink and various
washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation’. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">(Heb. 9.8-10)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">This is part of the great argument of the writer, that the one work of
Christ is superior to the work of many priests and the services of the
tabernacle, (9.9) as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is characteristic
of OT as the services the tabernacle, and the Temple. See other references to
the conscience<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in Heb. 10.2, 11.22. This
is of great interest because here the conscience is a conviction treated explicitly
on the understanding of the worth of Christ’s work<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to this arrangement. ‘Gifts and sacrifices cannot perfect the conscience of the
worshipper’ 9.9. but deal only with food and various washings, regulations for
the body imposed until the time of reformation’.`(9.10).As might be said, only
Christ in his person and offering has a whole conscience.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The Reformed theologians stress in their natural theology that the
human soul is a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">semen religionis</i>, the seed of true religion. Conscience is a part
of that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Bavinck says of such a passage,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 2cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">‘That conscience is good and pure that is washed in
the blood of Christ, that is sanctified through faith, and in which the Holy
Spirit himself bears<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>witness (I Tim
1.19; 1 Peter 2.19; Rom. 9.1). So only that Christian conscience is good that
feels bound solely and entirely and closely to the divine will known to us from
revelation. (118)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Reflection on one’s conscience takes one deeply into the self. Especially
so if it is measured by the revealed will. The conscience is at work of the call
to repent, as those who were called to repentance by John the Baptist (Matt.3)
and by his cousin Jesus of Nazareth (Matt. 4.17).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Readers will benefit from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herman Bavinck,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>‘Conscience’, trans. Nelson D, Kloosterman<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, (Bavinck Review, 6) <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-86704018072068801082021-12-30T12:54:00.005+01:002022-01-04T13:31:17.482+01:00 Two Kinds of Evangelical<p> </p>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>2</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1241</o:Words>
<o:Characters>7075</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>58</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>16</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>8300</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Two Kinds of Evangelical</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNLXLAFKVtnJTZLzh_M15F1KerWu6HblUKUW0Nppy3F-fQWExMAoYzpE7idWqiH0pAneySPWp7VAd6ezzf05fDwWvIbXyGjwvZ7awkhL6x6X1XjnjjdJxT3lndE1afDp4Na8G/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNLXLAFKVtnJTZLzh_M15F1KerWu6HblUKUW0Nppy3F-fQWExMAoYzpE7idWqiH0pAneySPWp7VAd6ezzf05fDwWvIbXyGjwvZ7awkhL6x6X1XjnjjdJxT3lndE1afDp4Na8G/" width="180" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Melvin Tinker,1955 - 2021</i></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The sudden death of Melvin Tinker,
who was </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">born in 1955, and who has just died,
is very sad. But what by God’s grace he achieved, prompts and enables</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">us to see clearly two versions</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">of evangelicalism and the Church of England
at present.</span><i style="font-family: Georgia;"> </i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">There is an unconditional
evangelical in the Church of England who I shall refer as </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">stickers, </i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">and those whose
adherence to the ministry in the Church of England is conditional, to</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">be called </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">followers</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Stickers<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">1. There are congregations that
hold to and are fed by serious and able evangelical ministers who bear ‘Happy Clappy
Religion’ which is what evangelicals are said to be by commentators who don’t
bother to take it seriously, So All Souls in London (for example) is a serious
evangelical ministry,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>till associated
with the outlook and ministry of John Stott. His the centenary of his birth is
being celebrated by reissuing some of his sermons on the Incarnation, as we
write. All Souls (and those like it) makes it clear that their congregation is
in the Church of England, though the directions of the episcopacy of the Church
of England are by and large ignored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
seems in All Souls that the doctrinal features in the Church that it
disapproved of are simply ignored. The bulk of evangelical Anglican
congregations are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stickers</i>. At the
rate that the bishops of the church speak at all, it is likely that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stickers</i> will find it more and more
difficult to be silenced - in issues like the meaning of the Cross, women in
ministry, including its bishops, and other issues of gender. Heretic bishops
could once be counted on the fingers of a hand, but now they are the rule.
Where is there an evangelical<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bishop to
make that fact clear? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are none, it
seems.. The vicar of a sticking ministry does not educate his officers as to
how woeful the national leadership is. As a consequence there is more than a
touch of Quietism in the average evangelical congregation in the Church of
England<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Followers to the Church of England
was provided by J.I.Packer, for example, whom adherence to the Church<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of England was not negotiable, and departure
from the C of E was come what may. He started well, writing of a current
radical bishop, J.A.T.Robinson, the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honest of God. </i>In a critical pamphlet on Anglican radicalism<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, Keep Yourselves from Idols, </i>published
in the 1963<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>Packer said<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 42.55pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, therefore, a grave matter when a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bishop appears to be driving a coach and four
through the plain and acknowledged sense of Scripture, the teaching of the
Thirty-nine Articles, and the beliefs of the mass of English churchmen’.(page
1) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the 1970’s, Packer must have become aware
that radicalism was embedded in the elite<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of the Church of England. He was humiliated by the so-called radicals as
he sat with the members of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>theologians
of Anglicanism in the church’s Doctrinal Commission. He found himself in a
clear minority by the currents of radical theology, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with sitting with the men such as its
chairman<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maurice Wiles, Dennis Nineham,
and Geoffrey Lampe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this experience
seemed to strengthen Packer’s resolve to continue in the Church of England. And
he made an alliance and friendship with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anglo-Catholics such as <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E. L.
Mascall became a friend, because they each regarded the gospel as supernatural.
Both groups were against union of English Methodism with the Church of England,
an alliance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which proved successful. This
friendship led Packer to say: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 70.9pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">.’…whatever reservations I may have
about the ecclesiology, Mariology, and Eucharistic teaching of such a man as my
learned man Dr. Eric Mascall, I am profoundly grateful to him for books like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up and Down in Adria</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Secularization of Christianity</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Theology and the Gospel of Christ</i>, and I
hope you are too. Should the future see a catholic renewal in the Church of
England, having the same non-triumphalist, non-partisan character as has marked
the evangelical renewal of the past generation, I am bold to predict that both
that the church will benefit and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>evangelical-catholic solidarity against views which erode the
supernatural in the realm of redemption will become yet stronger. Such
co-belligerence<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>will not compromise
either side , and will be tactically appropriate for furthering faith in in
those fundamentals concerning our incarnate Lord on which we are truly agreed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 70.9pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Does it not seem that Packer testified his loyalty to evangelicalism
in the Church of England by experience of the opposite views, theological radicalism
and conservative high church, perhaps to test himself, but his behaviour, was
often perplexing to his evangelical friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">After his move to Canada in 1979 he
was expelled from the liberal-led Anglicanism in British Columbia when it advocated
same-sex marriages. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Packer renewed his Anglican
priesthood through GAVCOM. As an evangelical,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">he was a </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">sticker</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Followers </i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Melvin Tinker was a follower<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the traditional theology and practice of
the Church of England that Packer represented, though in a different way.
Melvin was the product of a family whose lives were dominated by the coal mine.
He read his first book when he was thirteen years old. Following his conversion
to Christ, he studied at the University of Hull, and his theology was learned at
the Anglican college of Wyciffe Hall, Oxford, and he was ordained into the
Anglican ministry. He became a chaplain at Keele University, then held to various
posts, one as a curate to an evangelical church <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and then to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a large church in Hull, a rather neglected city. `Over 25 years, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the congregation, St John Newland, grew up to
500 souls. So here is a successful evangelical Anglican vicar. But during this
period Melvin got more and more uneasy by the stance of the Church of England.
He came to believe that the leaders of the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Church of England had come to promote views that were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>secular rather than that of the New Testament,
and viewed Christianity as a world religion along with Islam, Hinduism and so
on, therefore lacked a prophetic voice, following that culture. When Mervin
took his congregation out of the Church of England shortly before his death. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it became three distinct congregations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Melvin was outspoken when it was
called for. For example, .when the people in charge of York Minster welcomed
the LGBT , cultural Marxists, , including same-sex marriage, which is not the
official position of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Church of
England. He went on TV news to publicise this. As a consequence his plans to
hold a conference in Derby Cathedral were disallowed because of what he would
say from the pulpit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Around this time, October
2020,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he wrote in the periodical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anglican</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Midstream </i>on his outlook, of which this is an extract. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span style="color: #232323; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There was the
accelerating downgrading of the Church of England as a Biblical denomination.
The July 2017 General Synod was a watershed with open disdain being shown
towards orthodox beliefs and believers. This didn’t mark any crossing of any
‘line in the sand’, but an unmasking of what has been there for some time with
those pursuing a progressive agenda having become emboldened to be more openly
aggressive. The trajectory was clear and it seemed to us that it was simply a matter
of time (sooner rather than later) when a form of words would be found to
enable those holding non-biblical views on gender and sexuality to be formally
affirmed as part of the ‘mutual flourishing’ favoured by the Archbishop of
Canterbury.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Melvin made it clear to his flock
that this state of affairs was intolerable. At his retirement the one
congregation he was minister of had become several congregations in Hull. Alas,
his further plans were cut short by cancer discovered in October 2021. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By now he had severed the connections of these
congregations had to the Church of England of the day. And all too shortly he
was called to his Lord. What made him a<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
follower</i> was that his Anglican congregation complied with the Articles of
the Church of England. Melvin was not the only minister to break from
contemporary Anglican. Happily there are others, which follow in his example. For
Melvin and these others, unlike Jim Packer and John Stott and many other solid
evangelicals the state of the current mind of the bishops<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the Church of England had reached its
limits. That situation is intolerable for them. These are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">followers.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-10828183778067407482021-11-29T19:25:00.004+01:002021-12-01T09:13:42.642+01:00Gribben 3.The Future of the Church<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO96K3b_hPc5I265JVjqQymjGaBAxBnZ7ILYvtCnAsKGcmDFPK15w6elgsFw5iO-Zzt-B5-JU_qy0poyT2RnT4wa_Gsb1o80v__7O17xVnQVPZsBs_pE0pzQFnfSzndUAWA1Wr/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO96K3b_hPc5I265JVjqQymjGaBAxBnZ7ILYvtCnAsKGcmDFPK15w6elgsFw5iO-Zzt-B5-JU_qy0poyT2RnT4wa_Gsb1o80v__7O17xVnQVPZsBs_pE0pzQFnfSzndUAWA1Wr/" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The locations of the Seven Churches</i></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1136</o:Words>
<o:Characters>6476</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>53</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>15</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>7597</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Gribben
3.The Future of the Church<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">After
this interesting and entertaining tour of the changes of one congregation of
Christ in its search for a Christian culture, it may be wise to steady
ourselves with a general view of the
church . So, this last time, we examine ‘ the church and its Re-construction, The Future of the Church’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">In
reading Gribben’s book, we have seen congregations of the Reformed sort,
advocating different contexts of culture as they look into the future. This is
how Gribben puts it in the closing pages
of his book, when he ruminates on the prospects of Christian Reconstructionism.
He notes the remnants of this, now in the prospect of a general eschewing of
physical violence in their politics. Rushdoony, who died in 2001, rejected
violence, and Wilson has continued to grow his church in Moscow, Idaho, and to stimulate
various kinds of publications, but with no sign of rejecting the elections and
political policies of Washington, even when they at far as can be in the
boundaries of the USA. What were taken to be signs of the Second
Coming have largely disappeared. There are no doctrines of new–minted
ideologies expounded from the pulpit as there is (one hopes) exposition of the
central doctrines of the Westminster Confession, and those who expound its
sister Confessions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>Christ the Foundation</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">According
the NT, the future of the church is set out in the gospel of Matthew in ch.16 15-20. In Mark’s gospel
there are three similar occasions, in 8.27, 9.30, and 10.22. in 8.27 Christ
asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am’. Some thought he was John the
Baptist, and others Elijah, and one of the prophets When he asked, But who do
you sat that you I., Peter answered ‘You
are the Christ’, and he strictly charged them to tell no one about him’ On the
second occasion, 9.30, takes up his
concern to keep this secret to the disciples, because he was teaching his
disciples privately, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of
men. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise’. And the text adds
‘But they did not understand the saying
and were afraid to ask him’. The third
occasion was recorded in 10.32. ‘And they were amazed , and those who followed
him were afraid. And taking the twelve
again, he began to tell them , saying, ‘See, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and the Son will be delivered over to the chief priests and the
scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the
Gentiles. And they will mock him, and flog him and kill him. And after three
days he will rise.’(10.34) The three were more detailed than the earlier. Not
silence as at first, but privacy, his arrest and killed and his rising again,
and finally in his destiny the Gentiles were involved, being handed over to
them, to Pilate, followed by a resurrection after ‘three days’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In
Matthew there are also of three occasions, when Jesus told of his crucifixion,
Matt 16.13, 17.2, and</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">20.17. Of these
the first is the most detailed. Again it is Peter who confesses Christ, the Son
of the living God. ‘And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">revealed
this to you. And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, and the gates of
hell</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">shall not prevail against it. I
will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he
strictly</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">charged the disciples to tell
no one that he was the Christ. (17-20).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">There
are those in the Christian church that identify Peter with the Papal authority,
thus undermining Protestantism. But
surprisingly, Calvin says on the phrase ‘And on this rock’ (11.18), ‘whence it
is evident how the name <i>Peter</i> comes to
be applied both to Simon individually,
and to other believers. It is because
they are founded on the faith of Christ, and joined together, by a holy
consent, into a spiritual building, <i>that
God may dwell in the midst of the people
of Israel for ever. </i>(Ezek, 43.7). So Peter designates any believer, and
especially the apostles, building ‘a new church, which would prove victorious
against all the machinations of hell’. (<i>Harmony
of Matthew, Mark, Luke</i>, volume I, 291, part of Calvin’s treatment to
p.307). Not Peter an individual but a representative of all those who were
enlightened, as a fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work released through Christ’s’ crucifixion and
resurrection. The focus is on the person of Christ and the faith in him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">This is
focused narrowly, but expansively, on the Saviour and his early church. Of this
Paul refers to the ‘household of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in
whom the whole structure, being joined together grows unto a holy temple in the
Lord’. (Eph. 2.20-2)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Culture in the Church</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">This brief
survey has been necessary in order to see that there is little if any
importance given to the ‘culture’ of the church’ setting, or the ‘context’ in
which the church exists. The churches
can err, becoming tarnished by its context.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> We see this this through the verdicts the
Apostle John passes on the seven churches of Asia, all located closely together
in what is today Turkey. This is set out in ch.1 of <i>John’s Revelation</i>, and then to the seven churches of Asia, and the
comments of each in italics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">1. Ephesus, <i>abandoned your first love</i>, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> 2. Smyrna, <i>rich,
slanders</i>, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">3. Pergamum,
<i>where Satan dwells, the teaching of the
Nicolaitans</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">4. Thyatira,
<i>tolerate Jezebel. Practicing sexual immorality,
eating, to eat food sacrificed to idols</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">5. Sardis,
<i>reputedly dead, asleep, weak</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">6. Philadelphia,
<i>lacking in power</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">and <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">7. Laodicea,
<i>tepid, confidence in being rich,
prosperous, self-sufficient, but pitiable, poor, blind and naked</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">These
judgments, if that is the correct word to use, insofar as they are exact, have
to do with faithlessness or its opposite, but there is no reference to the
political or social cultures through which the church was travelling , or how
besides the Reformed churches, and of their relations to, say, the countless
numbers of Christian Pentecostalists, fare in cultural matters. And by what political manoeuvres that ‘the kingdom of the world has become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever’.
(Rev. 11.15) This seems to announce the end of politics. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Every
one who has post-millenial opinions has a view of the years of Gospel plenty to
come and the culmination in the visible
coming again of Jesus. This description has a number of variants, as to speed
and timing, and place and of the nature of Christ’s personal presence, giving
plenty of scope for discussion and the presence of a good deal of uncertainty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>The End.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Gribben’s interesting book ends by certain congregations of Reformed churches waiting patiently for more favourable
cultural conditions coming to pass in the United States for the project of Christian
reconstruction to be visited again, as it was in its early days. For example,
Crawford Gribben says that of Moscow Idaho, ‘The Moscow community has survived, and has
successfully resisted American and it greatest success may be found in its
members creative work.'(143) Authoring books is certainly a cultural endeavour,
but though necessary is it sufficient for Christian Reconstruction? Gribben’s
comment is ‘But, as the New Saint Andrew’s students know only too well, a plot
can only be identified as comedy when it provides a happy ending. Will there be
a happy ending ? Will the ‘wildly postmillennial’ expectations of the New Saint
Andrews students be realized? And would that be a happy ending for anybody
else?’ (143).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment--><p></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-11008835056942012982021-11-01T08:11:00.002+01:002021-11-08T19:36:29.409+01:00A Second Look at Crawford's Book<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">In the latest <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Helm’s Deep,</i> which received a healthy
interest, I suggested that in Crawford’s book there is a treatment<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of chapters of some of the forces that worked
to bring about the culture of Christian Reconstruction in Moscow, Idaho in the
last generation, in separate chapters. The first was entitled ‘Migration’, the
second<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Eschatology’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">Eschatology is the
study of the last things. There are various schools of eschatology, and it
means that the thinking of reconstruction takes place<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the jostling between
postmillenarianism<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and premillennialism,
which requires that those who think and lead about Reconstruction have an view,
and I suppose gives a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>movement its
Christian character for they are views<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of the coming in glory Lord Jesus Christ, and the point of the two views
that each have different views of human cultural and political conditions
between a period of evident progress in which the church works towards a climax
when the coming of Jesus will be visible for a long period of time, and the
premillennial view which holds that the coming of Jesus will be sudden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gribben gives interesting vignettes of the
varied positions held by individuals in his period 1970-2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>The interest in
the imminence of the second coming is one thing that separates American
evangelicalism from their British evangelicals. If evangelicals in the United
Kingdom are agreed in one thing that the Second Coming is not coming soon, might
be their position. ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the
fathers went asleep, all things are continuing as they
as they from the beginning as they were from the beginning of creation
(2 Peter 3. 4) ‘.....But by the same word the heaven and earth, that now exist
are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of
the godly’ (v.7). Peter’s words would
have reminded the readers of Jesus teaching in Matthew 24, in which the words
‘Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at as hour you
do not expect’ (Matthew 24.44) reverberate.
It is followed in chapter 25 by the Parable of the Ten Virgins’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Gribben’s second chapter
‘Eschatology’ digs into the place such of eschatological among the leaders, in Moscow, Idaho, and other places. beginning
with Rousas Rushdoony, a follower of Cornelius Van Til of Westminster
Theological Seminary, though it is not clear that would have approved of
Rushdoony’s eschatology or his theonomical emphasis on the law of the Old Testament,
but emphasised its postmillenialistic tendencies But his fundamentalistic
tendencies which were attracted by his punchy journalistic style of writing. So the sum is that premillenistic eschatology
is weakened in the face of Rushdoony, who wrote a great deal, and travelled
copiously. Though for a while a darling among some of the Reformed, Rousas,
educated at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_School_of_Religion" title="Pacific School of Religion"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Pacific School of Religion</span></a>, and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree" title="Honorary degree"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">honorary</span></a> Ph.D.
from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valley_Christian_University&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Valley Christian University (page does not exist)"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Valley
Christian University</span></a>. He himself discovered and relished Cornelius</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Van Til, especially his
idealist epistemology.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span>The other factor was that Gary North, Rushdoony’s son-in-law and abettor, left Westminster
theological carrying the postmillennialism of John Murray. Murray discovered
postmillennialism in Romans 9 -11 in his commentary on Romans. North started
the <i>Journal of Christian Reconstruction</i>
in 1974, which has had a role of keeping Reconstruct in the news of those who
favoured it. Combined, these raised interest in social renewal (48). As the
millennium came to an end the reconstructioners, becoming attracted to the ideals and
strategies of a separate group, the ‘paramilitarity survivalists’ (48) who
prospered in thinking that the end of the millennium must be of appropriate
significance. In this mix of ideas North suggested Moscow, in Northern Idaho
which had a growing community of similar outlook led by Douglas Wilson
(48-9 ), who led a growing local group of survivalists who lived for the start
of the new millennium. As Rushdoony
himself had stated , “Until there is Christian reconstruction, there will be
radical decline and decay’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One further strand
was a dislike of big government, expressed in big taxes, in state education, and
in the legality of abortion as a result of the decision in Roe v Wade in the
U.S. Supreme Court. In Rushdoony’s mind, this compromised and required
Reconstruction of the Christian character of the USA. Another impulse overturned
the belief that the Federal government had shown it had upturned the sacredness
of human life, as in judicial policy to make cases of capital punishment
less and less. But the sun shone on the New Year of 2000 as
it did always, from coast to coast, reconstruction was on the menu in Moscow,
Idaho. Rushdoony died in 2001.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the beginning
it was stated that Reconstruction could not be a consequence of the eschatology
for the reason that belief in the imminent or distant is near to zero. But
bearing the ethos of Moscow in mind, the odds of having a current or distant
English outpost of Moscow might happen in England, perhaps as a westernmost
congregation of the CREC, made possible by electronic, why not? When
postmillennialism warrants such confidence in the future, who needs it? A trip
to Moscow, Idaho anyone? ‘Jesus stated, after his disciples recognised him as
the Lord’s anointed, and in their role of Christ’s church on earth: ‘ I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be shall be in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt 16.18)</span></p>
<span style="font-family: georgia;"><!--EndFragment--></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><span>After
this interesting and entertaining tour of the changes of one congregation of
Christ in its search for a Christian church and culture, it may be wise to
steady ourselves with a fresh look at the church. So, next time, ‘The Church
and the Future’ </span>lowed in Crawford’s narrative by
noticing that there came a growth in publications from Wilson and the people of
his church, Christchurch, (49 f.) The led in due course to the creation as a
Christian school and postgraduate College, St Andrews. Crawford comments of
this stage that Wilson was not presenting himself as a Christian
Reconstructionist, venturing that Moscow ‘may now be AmerIca’s ‘most
postmillennial town’. (49) There are examples of self-promotion, with
references to Moscow as the ‘Reformed capital’ and the ‘Reformed Mecca’, followers
believing their own rhetoric about the
town. Their confidence in the future seems to take us back to the nineteenth
century, with many congregations in all the parts of the U.S. were formed. For,
yes, in this phase, Moscow coalesced
into the centre of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, (p.50)
which at the time of Crawford’s writing embraces eighty congregations’. Where
is the effect of post millennialism to be discerned? If anywhere in their
confidence of the future , including the death of modernity and the planting of
yet more confident congregations, and in ‘homeschooling families across the
nation’.(56)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>At the beginning
it was stated that Reconstruction could not be a consequence of the eschatology
for the reason that belief in the imminent or distant is near to zero. But
bearing the ethos of Moscow in mind, the odds of having a current or distant
English outpost of Moscow might happen in England, perhaps as a westernmost
congregation of the CREC, made possible by electronic, why not? When
postmillennialism warrants such confidence in the future, who needs it? A trip
to Moscow, Idaho anyone? ‘Jesus stated, after his disciples recognised him as
the Lord’s anointed, and in their role of Christ’s church on earth: ‘ I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be shall be in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt 16.18)</span></p>
<span style="font-family: georgia;"><!--EndFragment--></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">So
the sum is that premillenistic eschatology is weakened in the face of
Rushdoony, who wrote a great deal, and travelled copiously. Though for a while
a darling among some of the Reformed, Rousas, educated at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_School_of_Religion" title="Pacific School of Religion"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Pacific School of Religion</span></a>, and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree" title="Honorary degree"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">honorary</span></a> Ph.D.
from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valley_Christian_University&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Valley Christian University (page does not exist)"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Valley
Christian University</span></a>. He himself discovered and relished Cornelius</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Van Til, especially his
idealist epistemology.</span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">The other factor
was that Gary North, Rushdoony’s son-in-law and abettor, left Westminster Theological Seminary carrying the postmillennialism of John Murray. Murray discovered
postmillennialism in Romans 9 -11 in his commentary on Romans. North started
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Christian Reconstruction</i>
in 1974, which has had a role of keeping Reconstruct in the news of those who
favoured it. Combined, these raised interest in social renewal (48). As the
millennium came to an end the reconstructioners, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>becoming attracted to the ideals and
strategies of a separate group, the ‘paramilitarity survivalists’ (48) who
prospered in thinking that the end of the millennium must be of appropriate
significance. In this mix of ideas North suggested Moscow, in Northern Idaho
which<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>had a growing community<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of similar outlook led by Douglas Wilson
(48-9 ), who led a growing local group of survivalists who lived for the start
of the new<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>millennium. As Rushdoony
himself had stated , “Until there is Christian reconstruction, there will be
radical decline and decay’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">One further strand
was a dislike of big government, expressed in big taxes, in state education, and
in the legality of abortion as a result of the decision in Roe v Wade in the
U.S. Supreme Court. In Rushdoony’s mind, this compromised and required
Reconstruction of the Christian character of the USA. Another impulse overturned
the belief that the Federal government had shown it had upturned <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the sacredness<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of human life, as in judicial policy to make cases of capital punishment
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>less and less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the sun shone on the New Year of 2000 as
it did always, from coast to coast, reconstruction was on the menu in Moscow,
Idaho. Rushdoony died in 2001.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">Chapter 2,
‘Eschatology’ is the book’s main narrative chapter of what came to happened in
Idaho, and why. The only matter that seems defective in the history is that
there came in the programme for the growth in Douglas Wilson and his
congregation a point there was when they became distinctly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reformed. It is a pity Crawford did go into
this in detail. This was immediately followed in Crawford’s narrative by
noticing that there came a growth in publications from Wilson and the people of
his church, Christchurch, (49 f.) The led in due course to the creation as a
Christian school and postgraduate College, St Andrews. Crawford comments of
this stage that Wilson was not presenting himself as a Christian
Reconstructionist, venturing that Moscow ‘may now be AmerIca’s ‘most
postmillennial town’. (49) There are examples of self-promotion, with
references to Moscow as the ‘Reformed capital’ and the ‘Reformed Mecca’, followers
believing their own rhetoric about <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
town. Their confidence in the future seems to take us back to the nineteenth
century, with many congregations in all the parts of the U.S. were formed. For,
yes, in this phase, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moscow coalesced
into the centre of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, (p.50)
which at the time of Crawford’s writing embraces eighty congregations’. Where
is the effect of post millennialism to be discerned? If anywhere in their
confidence of the future , including the death of modernity and the planting of
yet more confident congregations, and in ‘homeschooling families across the
nation’.(56)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>At the beginning
it was stated that Reconstruction could not be a consequence of the eschatology
for the reason that belief in that is near to zero. But
bearing the ethos of Moscow in mind, the odds of having a current or distant
English outpost of Moscow might happen in England, perhaps as a westernmost
congregation of the CREC, made possible by electronic, why not? When
postmillennialism warrants such confidence in the future, who needs it? A trip
to Moscow, Idaho anyone? ‘Jesus stated, after his disciples recognised him as
the Lord’s anointed, and in their role of Christ’s church on earth: ‘ I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be shall be in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matt 16.18) That makes the future life of the Christian church sure. come what culture comes up with.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>802</o:Words>
<o:Characters>4576</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>38</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>10</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>5368</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;">After this interesting
and entertaining tour of the changes of one congregation of Christ in its
search for a Christian church and culture, it may be wise to steady ourselves
with a fresh look at the church. So, next time, ‘The Church and the Future’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: georgia; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-77007062713163124772021-10-05T16:42:00.000+01:002021-10-05T16:42:28.388+01:00Gribben on Christian Reconstruction<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFo8du6XQb5bZO5p9XbYwqeEpOSCinq29L1THEE6Kh0VPdL3b_9fJgaJkoF3IID1oM88TylG6jBGEERfdT5sWzasHoRDocbAeRbv-WEcBl4kS-GFh4bwBpD8d_wfN4jARxvAP/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="85" data-original-width="85" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTFo8du6XQb5bZO5p9XbYwqeEpOSCinq29L1THEE6Kh0VPdL3b_9fJgaJkoF3IID1oM88TylG6jBGEERfdT5sWzasHoRDocbAeRbv-WEcBl4kS-GFh4bwBpD8d_wfN4jARxvAP/" width="240" /></a></div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><p></p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> Crawford Gribben</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US">Crawford Gribben
is an historian and something of an entrepreneur in his discipline. He is
interested in religion of a kind that will be missed by many an historian
because it is of no interest to themselves, and, perhaps,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they think it is of no interest to their
readers. For example, they have little patience for people who are interested
in the likely occurrence of the Rapture amongst believers, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because they could not conceivably be interested
in the Rapture themselves. There is something of a partiality, a bias, at work
in this,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when it comes to writing
histories of history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their history
would not have any slots about the people who had beliefs in the Rapture, and
how the believers in it articulate it. The historian’s fishing net does not
catch the Rapture, and so it is expunged from the record. Academic history is of
course a humanism, but that manifests and is shaped by the current interests of
historians. The history of belief in the Rapture does not settle down in the
historical record as anything that anyone was interested in, not even to the
reaction of bewilderment, or what it was like in 2021 to be a believer in the
Rapture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>Not the Rapture,
then, but it is a fact that interest in politics is had by more people than the
Rapture. Professor Gribben in this latest book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian
Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest </i>(Oxford University Press, 2021), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea that people with no interest in the
Rapture nonetheless involve themselves in politics, so why not research a book
on the politics of the Rapture had by those who believe in it, and the culture
they produce, books and journals in particular, that are being written by its followers.That is a good idea</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> I</o:p></span>t is not only the
Rapture, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but several other convictions The
result is – I think – that Crawford has an author’s ingenuity and works hard.
For the book does not feature the Rapture alone - that was my way of this
review getting going. But better, on the cultural setting of those who have among
the people for whom the Rapture is an active belief. But it is an exercise in ‘Reconstruction’,
another novel word, that is, a serious exercise in attempting a new cultural
setting<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for the faith of men and women
to grow. That is nearer what historians may be interested in, for it denotes
the re-siting of human groups in order to arrange a novel culture. The
importance of reconstruction us given in the title of the first chapter,
‘Migration’.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>Migration is a
feature of Protestantism, when medieval Christian groups transferred to new urban
centres, such as Geneva, and other Swiss cities, Strasburg, and Zurich, then London,
Edinburgh, Utrecht. and so on. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews
celebrates the migration of the Israelites (ch.11) and made it characteristic
of Christians in chapter 12. In this<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>short
review the reader is introduced to the last twenty years of activity in which
Christian people have striven<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to
survive, and to resist the prevailing culture, through the era of President
Trump. Other current ventures in the writing of thinkers, for example, Rod
Dreher, in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Benedict Option</i>, and
the activity of the Reformed pastor Douglas Wilson, ‘one of the most erudite
and controversial <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the evangelical of
the theorists of American cultural decline,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and one of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the most and one of
the most important of religious migration, and of other familial, ecclesiastical
and cultural strategies for survival , resistance and reconstruction’. (11) Those
who came and to join his congregation in Moscow, Idaho, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the crucial part of the ‘’Redoubt’, an enclave
in the North-West of the United States <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>including Idaho and the adjoining states of
Montana , Wyoming, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington, in which a new
community of religious conservatism could derive and resist an impending crisis
in American culture’s “Impending crisis’ which has to do with abortion and the
growth of the size and reach of the federal government, including state
education. Education is important, and there are Christian schools and also a the
writing of Rousas Rushdoony also <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>among the
Reformed constituency, and his son-in-law Gary North. Rushdoony’s books, such
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Intellectual Schizophrenia</i> (1961) The
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">messianic character of American education</i>
(1963),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The politics of guilt and pity</i> (1970) and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Christian Reconstruction</i> edited by Gary North, were one
of the means that ideals and proposals <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
were a part of the mix during this period, and through the influence of who
many families migrated in numbers, and bought land and houses and businesses in
the area. The change had an important strand of eschatology, though this has
seemed to have weakened over the years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other
literary influences were the novels of J.W.Rawles, which have had a broad
reach, novels such as….. and Hal Lindsay’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Late Great Planet Earth</i> (1970), which sold 28 million copies. And <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Douglas Wilson has been<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the editor of periodical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Credenda Agenda</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>since 1995.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i>The above details have
been taken from chapter one. There are
other chapters titled ’Eschatology’, `Government,’ ‘Education’,
and ‘Media’, and copious bibliographies covering Crawford Gribben’ s
researches. They give an idea of the many-sided of this new Christian culture. It
must be stressed that this is an academic book, writing about what is the case,
rather than what the author ought to be rather is. It is a work in the history.
The prose is clear but condensed and
detailed. In the book there are several references to the Reformed character of
this development, but it struck me that originally the Reformed did not occupy
emptiness at first but to the cities of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, Geneva, Zurich, Strasbourg, Utrecht, London, Edinburgh. In contrast,
the author seems to think that their model might have in common with the
Mormons, who predominate in Southern Idaho, who have grown from the 26 settlers of 1855 to 456,495 currently
residing (19). (Gribben is strong on figures, and on noting the sources of his
every claim he makes, reminding us all the while that this book is the work of
a professional historian.) Such settling in Idaho was helped by the work of James
Wesley Rawles, his novels and other writings. These writings joined those of
Rod Dreher, of how to live as Christians in an increasingly anti-christian culture.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>Gribben<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has put all this together this by hard work: visiting
Idaho, conducting interviews, reading house magazines, indulging some philosophy,
the details of eschatology, (on which has written previously) apologetics, and
institutional growth in the Christian faith in Moscow, Idaho and its trends in
education, particularly home education, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In putting these together he has moulded a
body of data which is foundational in the history of this<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>culture. The upshot is greater than its
parts. Like archaeological find. serious and intrigued, where other historians
are typically disparaging. There is not only a Christian church, but also in
the formation of schools,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and a college,
St Andrews.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>This review does
not do justice to the sweep and the detail into a book of modest
proportions. I have said nothing of eschatology about which Gribben has dealt
in other books, nor about homeschooling which is how Christians in the UK would
come closest to the busyness of this venture in Idaho and its motivations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps there should be other <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>blogs on it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-726389394199353012021-09-02T09:08:00.000+01:002021-09-02T09:08:31.383+01:00Assurance(s)<p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>880</o:Words>
<o:Characters>5016</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>41</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>11</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>5885</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Assurance(s)</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">For any
Christian it is no hardship to sing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Blessed assurance, Jesus is
mine</span><span style="color: #202124; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Heir of salvation, purchase of God</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Born of His spirit, washed in His blood<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span>The early
Reformers confessed justification by faith, full sto. As for example, in ‘The
Justification of Man’, Article 11 of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of
England;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">We are
accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ by Faith, and not for our own works and desertings; Wherefore,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that we are justified by Faith only, is a
most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed
in the Homily A Short<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Declaration ‘’Of
the True, Lively and Christian Faith” The homily discusses ‘dead’ faith (James
2.17), and emphasises the fruit of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘Assurance’ is not mentioned. This is dated 1547</span> </p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Move on a
century, to the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>time of The Westminster
Confession of Faith (1647)’ the chapters on Justification, Chapter <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>11, and Chapter 18, ‘Of Assurance of Grace and
Salvation.’ There are two elements,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>justifying
faith and its assurance. Ch.18 is among the most sophisticated chapters<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the Confession. Here are parts of that
chapter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Having
distinguishing certainty from having a probable persuasion the Confession
states -</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Geneva;"></span></p><blockquote>II. This certainty is not a
bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an
infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of
salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are
made the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that
we are the children of God: which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance,
whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.</blockquote><p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Geneva;"></span></p><blockquote>III. This infallible
assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer
may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it:
yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him
of God, he may without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary
means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all
diligence to make his calling and election sure; that thereby his heart may be
enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God,
and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits
of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness.</blockquote><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
the Puritan version of justification, the outcome of a century’s preaching on
the consequences of true faith, while being careful not to make any of those
grounds a case of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>justification by works.
An experimental (or experiential) approach to the matter of justification , and
of the application of the doctrine at the centre of many a Puritan sermon on
justifying faith. From<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this development
the evangelical stress on assurance, such as the hymn ‘</span><span style="background: white; color: #202124; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine’ is a </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> (</o:p></span>For those
who wish to study this seventeenth century development in justification of
faith, there is no better book than Joel Beeke’ s dissertation, <i>Assurance of Faith: Calvin, English
Puritanism, and the Dutch Second Reformation</i> (Peter Lang, 1991), and <i>The Quest For Full Assurance</i>, (Banner of
Truth, 1999.)</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">II<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>Apart
from all this , and keeping to the importance of justification by faith, here I
want to stress that in the New Testament ’assurance’ has a wider usage than an
attachment of saving faith. (The fact that in the King James what for what is
‘assured’ sometimes the ESV uses the
words ‘conviction’ or ‘firmly believed’ or ‘reassured’, is unfortunate.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Here is
‘assurance’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in order of its occurrence in the New
Testament - <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>Paul</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
resurrection, Acts 1.31 ‘given assurance to all’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Coloss. 2.2
‘full assurance’</span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I Thess.
1.5 ‘full conviction’ ESV/’much assurance’ KJV</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">2Tim 3.14
‘assured’, ‘firmly believed’(ESV)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Hebrews<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span> 6.11, ‘full assurance’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>10.22,
‘full assurance’,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">11, I <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘assurance’, ‘substance of’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>1 John</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>1. Jn. 3.19, assure/reassure (ESV)</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">III</span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Summing
up,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘assurance’ has degrees, and it
means <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the New Testament the making
aware of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>evidence of spiritual
realities, depending of the context</span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">2.
degrees, ‘much’, ‘full’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>giving conviction, evidence</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">3) it is desirable
for disciples to grow to possess it, and therefore it is the subject of the
Apostles’ prayers, bringing this to a belief which is made so strong until it
is ‘full’ or <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the ‘form’ of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So, in
the New Testament ‘assurance’ has not only a qualifier of faith but also of
other spiritual realities. For example in Colossians 2.2 Paul prays to the
church that their hearts to more and more love between them ‘the full assurance
of understanding, and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ ‘in whom
are hidden all the riches of full understanding’. (v.3), and this is continued
in verse 4, and put negatively in v. 8 and continuing…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>So here
‘assurance’ refers to a Christian grace
that is a rich pearl, having to do with the growth in the Christian’s <i>understanding of Christ</i> which the
Colossians ought to benefit themselves, the nature of Christ, what it is and
what it isn’t, which they ought to petition the Lord in their prayers for more
assurance.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span>This is a
significant window into the apostolic view of prayer, a church praying for
‘God’s understanding in Christ’. This is another ‘blessed assurance’ about
which we may sing, and in a disciplined way come to an increased understanding
of who and what is Christ, freeing our minds of false and inadequate views of
him, who was ‘raised with him [believers] through faith in the powerful working
through faith in God,,,,. who raised him from the dead’ (v.14) triumphing over
rulers and authorities in him. (v.15)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">When did
you last pray for such assurance? Are these matters important items in our
daily prayer list?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-88310534697631528492021-08-06T08:25:00.000+01:002021-08-06T08:28:13.142+01:00Toplady the Revivalist<p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>892</o:Words>
<o:Characters>5088</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>42</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>11</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>5969</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">We live in a day when the people around us
are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>indifferent to the Gospel. I thought
it might be an encouragement to some to have an account Of the experience of
revival in England and Wales, and coupled with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a testimony from Augustus Toplady, a decidedly Calvinistic writer and
preacher. These are taken from his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Works</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">He wrote:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">On the Anniversary Day in Wales, the
congregation was so large that the chapel would not have contained a fourth
part of the people, who were supposed to three thousand . No fewer than one
thousand three hundred horses were turned into the large fold adjoining the
College, besides what were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stationed in
the neighboring villages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The carriages
also, were unusually numerous. A scaffold was erected at one end of the College
– court, on which a bookstand was placed, by way of pulpit; and them six or
seven of us preached, successively,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to
one of the most attentive and most lively congregations I ever beheld. When it
came to my turn to preach. ``I attend to the front, ; and had not gone more
than half through my prayer before sermon when the was done. scaffold suddenly
fell in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fell in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I stood very near the highermost step<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(and the steps<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>did not fall with the rest), Providence
enabled me to keep on my feet, through the assistance of Mr Winkworth, who laid
fast on my ar,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About forty ministers
were on the scaffold and and the steps when the former broke down. Dear Mr
Shirley fell undermost of all, but received no other hurt than a very slight
bruise on one of his thighs. A good woman, who, for the conveniency of hearing
, had placed herself under the scaffold, received a slight contusion to
her<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>face. No other mischief was done.
The congregation, though greatly alarmed, had the prudence not to throw
themselves into outward disorder: which, I believe<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was chiefly owing to he powerful sense of
God’s presence, which was eminently felt by most of the assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>Such was the wonderful goodness of the Lord
to me, that I was not in the least disconcerted on this dangerous occasion:
which I mention to the praise of that grace and providence, without which a
much smaller incident would inevitably<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>have shocked<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>every nerve I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have. About half<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a minute after the interruption had
commenced, I had the satisfaction to inform the people that no damage had
ensued; and removing for security to a lower step, I thanked the Lord, with the
rejoicing multitude, for having so undeniably<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>given his angels charge concerning us. Prayer ended,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was enabled to preach .and great grace seemed
to be upon us all.</p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Part of a letter of A.M. Toplady to
friends, Sept. 9, 1775, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Works of the
Rev Augustus Toplady</i>, 875-6</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">He has this extract of an account of the
character of George Whitefield, after his death in Newburyport, Mass., in 1770.
Perhaps it was an article in the newly-published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evangelical Magazine</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal">I deem myself happy in having an
opportunity of thus publicly avowing the
inexpressible esteem in which I held this
wonderful man; and the affectionate veneration which I must ever refrain, for the memory of
one whose acquaintance and ministry were
attended with the most important spiritual benefit to me, and of tens of
thousands beside.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It will not be saying too much, if I term
him The apostle of the English empire; in point of zeal for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God</i>, a long course of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>indefatigable and incessant labours,
unparalleled disinterestedness, and astonishingly extensive usefulness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>He was a true and faithful son of the
Church of England, and invincibly asserted her doctrines to the last; and that
in a merely doctrinal way. though he was a most systematic divine, but with an
unction of power from God, unequalled in the present day.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>He would never have quitted even the walls
of the Church, had not either the ignorance, or the malevolence, of some who
ought who known better, compelled him in the present day.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>If the most absolute command over the
passions of immense auditories be the mark of a consummate orator, he was the
greatest of the age. If the strongest good sense, the most generous expansions
of heart, the most artless but captivating affability, the brightest
cheerfulness , the most liberal
exemption from bigotry, and the purest and most purest cheerfulness, and the
promptest wit, enter into the composition of social excellence, he was one of
the best companions in the world. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">If to be stedfast and unmoveable, always
abounding in the works of the Lord; if an union of the most brilliant with the
most solid ministerial gifts, ballasted by a deep and humbling, experience of
grace, and crowned with the most<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>extended success<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the
conversion of sinners and the edification<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of saints, be signatures of a special commission from heaven;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Whitefield cannot but<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stand highest on the modern list of Christian
ministers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">On the whole, he was the most imperfect character
I ever knew; and yet, no person was ever more shockingly traduced and vilified,
by those<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who either were unacquainted
with him, or who hated him for his virtues, and for his attachment to the
gospel of Christ…..</span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span lang="EN-US">The
Works of the Rev Augustus Toplady</span></i><span lang="EN-US">, p.494</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p>P</o:p></span>eople think of Toplady as a
hyper-Calvinist, because of his
admiration of John Gill I suppose. But these extracts are those of a regular
revivalist. He was the author of great hymns. Here is one centred in Christ:</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Object of my first
desire,<br />
Jesus, crucified for me;<br />
All to happiness aspire,<br />
Only to be found in Thee.<br />
<br />
<br />
Thee to praise, and Thee to know,<br />
Constitute my bliss below;<br />
Thee to see, and Thee to love,<br />
Constitute my bliss above.<br />
<br />
<br />
Lord, it is not life to live,<br />
If Thy presence Thou deny:<br />
Lord, if Thou Thy presence give,<br />
‘Tis no longer death to die.<br />
<br />
<br />
Source and giver of repose,<br />
Only from Thy smile it flows,<br />
Peace and happiness are Thine;<br />
Mine they are, if Thou art mine.<br />
<br />
<br />
Let me but Thyself possess—<br />
Total sum of happiness—<br />
Real bliss I then shall prove,<br />
heaven below and heaven above.</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-83068088862000983612021-07-09T14:53:00.001+01:002021-07-09T15:02:36.522+01:00Reading Scripture<p><br /></p><p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>91</o:Words>
<o:Characters>519</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>4</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>609</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">How are we to read the Bible or parts of it? This is certainly a big
question, and a basic one. The canonical scriptures are , it is often said, a
library, and the books it is comprised of have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a varied, interesting <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>character. At
one level sometimes hear of people who set out recipes drawn from the Bible, or
develop an interest in its archaeology, or in its flora and fauna; some of its
place in ancient history and culture, and especially perhaps, its setting in
the culture of the middle east, Roman and Greek and so on, Babylonian and
Phoenician and Egyptian, and so on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
do all these fit into it?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>83</o:Words>
<o:Characters>474</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>3</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>556</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Some, coming nearer, spend their talents and skills in efforts to
prove or display its reliability, in an effort to provide an apology for its
trustworthiness. Churches arrange evening in which they commend the Christian
faith by explaining it, ‘Christianity Explained’. And coming even nearer, the
Bible is read, or parts of it are, and sources of the ancient religious
concepts<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that are found within the
covers of a Bible. Maybe some familiarities are found what the Bible contains
and modern religious ideas, or perhaps its difference and uniqueness.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: Georgia;">All these enterprises, and others that we have not included in our list,
are </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">to one degree or another, fascinating
and learned as they are or can be. Part of the contribution to the religious
quest of humanity.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">But all these ‘approaches’ to Scripture, and more we could add,
neglects the basic fact that Scripture invites us to understand it as the word
of God. Not only to understand it but to be engaged as that word. In fact</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">to engage and be engaged to its own estimate
of itself. This is a way of saying that the Bible has a spiritual engagement of
men and women, who have sprits that can engage with it, if our spirits are imbued
by the work of God the Holy Spirit within them. And Scripture offers its
content</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">to the deepest part of
humankind.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Early on in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Institutes</i>,
Calvin says<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Let it therefore be held as fixed, that those who
are inwardly taught by the Holy Spirit acquiesce implicitly in Scripture, that
Scripture carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to
proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to
receive</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">it to the testimony of the Spirit.
Enlightened by him, we no longer believe wither on our own judgment or that of
others, that the Scriptures are from God; but, in a way superior to human
judgment, feel perfectly assured – as much so as if we beheld the divine image
impressed on it – that it came to us, by the instrumentality of men, from the
very mouth of God.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">We ask not for proofs
or probabilities on which we rest our judgment, but we subject our intellect
and judgment to it as too transcendent for us to estimate….we</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">find</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a
divine energy living and breathing in it -</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">an energy by which we are drawn and animated to obey it, willingly
indeed, and knowingly, but more vividly than could</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">be done by human will or knowledge…..(</span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Institutes</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Bk I.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">ch.7. S.5.)</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">JohJohn. Owen -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><i>The The Reason of Faith; or, an Answer unto that Inquiry, ‘Wherefore we Believe the
Scripture</i><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><i>to be the Word of God?’</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> (1677) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Work</i>s,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ed. Goold, IV<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Hereby we re taught of God, so as, finding, the glory and majesty of
God<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the word, our hearts do , by an
ineffable power, assent under the truth without any hesitation. And this work
of the Spirit carrieth its own evidence in itself, producing an assurance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>above all human judgment, and such as stands
in no need of no farther arguments or testimonies. This faith rests on and is
resolved into, (p.43)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: -1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">J.I. J.I. Packer-<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The evangelical certainty of the trustworthiness
and authority is of exactly the same word , and rests on exactly the same
basis, as the Church’s certainty of the Trinity, or the incarnation, or any
other catholic doctrine. God has declared it; Scripture embodies it; the Spirit
exhibits it to believers; and they humbly receive it, as they are bound to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.(‘Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God </i>p.124)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Two or three words sum this up – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">certainty</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">immediacy</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">energy</i>. For Calvin it is as if the reader takes in the air of Scripture,
of prophets and apostles, and especially <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the incarnate Son of God, by the energy of
the Holy Spirit, by which the truth of scripture is known with certainty. This
engagement involves not only our intellects, our minds, but out affections, our
spirits.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">‘No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father’ ‘(John
6.65) we have we seen his glory, glory as of as only of the Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth’; (Jn. 1.14<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>see also 16--18);<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘This is why I
told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father (Jn
6. 65): Lord ‘to whom shall we go? Thou have the words of eternal life, and we
have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of God <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Jn. 6.66-9)’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This passage in John is rich in detail.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The disciples have certainty, assurance, that
Christ is the Word of God. They</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">did not
have this because they have had information about Jesus’s circumstances, but as
recognising that he their leader was the Holy One of God. They ‘have come to
him’ (Jesus reminds them that one of them is a devil, Judas Iscariot. (6.70-1)
And so their</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">coming to Jesus as the
Messiah</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">was granted him by the Father,
disclosed by the Father. Judas fell short because he was not given by this
grace, even though he was one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus Judas, blind,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a devil.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">What is needed to be a Christian is to</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">be hearers of Jesus (in the case of this we have looked at in John 6).
He is unique, the very Saviour of men and women the world over, and in every
era in accordance with his Great Commission given to the eleven after the death
and resurrection of Christ remove any doubts the may have.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> All authority in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. `Go, therefore and make disciples<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>of all nations,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>baptising them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to observe al that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have commanded you. And behold, I am with
you always , to the end of the age’ (Matt 28.19)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Let us give John Owen the last word, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The principal divine effect of the word of God is
in the conversion of the souls of sinners unto God. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The greatness and glory</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">of</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">it…all those who are acquainted with it, as It is declared in ‘The
Scripture, and have any experience of it and have any experience of it in their
own hearts, do constantly give as an instance of the exceeding greatness of the
power of</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">God(…..Now of this great and
glorious effect of the word is only the instrumental cause, whereby the</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">divine power operates and is expressive of
itself : for we are ‘born again’, born of God, not of corruptible seed</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever 9I Pet .1.23), for of his own will doth God
beget us</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">with the</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">word of truth’, (James 1.18))…..Therein, in
an especial manner, is the divine authority of the word evidenced, by the
divine power and efficacy</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">given unto it
by the Holy Ghost. The work which</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">is
effected by it,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">in the regeneration,
conversion, and sanctification of the souls of believers, doth evidence
infallibly unto their</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">consciences, that
it is not the word of man, but of God. (Owen, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Works</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">, IV.94-5)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-48498562302387480352021-06-03T10:17:00.004+01:002021-06-03T10:19:00.758+01:00The Two Kingdoms? <p> </p>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1108</o:Words>
<o:Characters>6317</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>52</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>14</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>7411</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt;">Two Kingdoms?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Last
time I said this about toleration:</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><blockquote>‘Rubbing
shoulders with such immoral people is inevitable it we are to live in the
world, and it is desirable that we be in their company in order that they may
hear of the gospel. This is an attitude of toleration to people who were
not Christians . The NT church lived and worked among queers, some of
which were converted to Christ (‘such were some of you’) .The Church may have
to bear the charge of ‘bigotry’, but such talk is not to be fostered.’</blockquote><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
Europe, in particular, Christians and in some cases others with views of a
religious kind are held and developed with the tacit belief
that their religion pervades the society in which they live. This in turn is because of the idea of the establishment of
Christianity as a arm of the state has become the default position. It wasn’t
always such. So, in the sixth century or so the Holy Roman Empire
emerged. Before that, Augustine lived in the birth pains of this Empire. Though
in the case of his attitude to the Donatists he employed armed force, the army
of a particular region of the Empire. Soon the top men in the faith were a part
of the elite who ruled the Empire. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the West the Holy Roman Empire lasted until the sixteenth century when
that alliance between the Protestant Christian church formed a church – state
alliance in England. And when besides the antics of Henry the VIII he became
the 'Defender of the Faith'. At the time when the Protestant magisterial reformation
occupied cities such as Strasbourg or Geneva, and the church
benefitted for the shielding of the arms and fortifications of the city forces,
not only freeing the church from persecution, under the umbrella
of the link with the state, used as a means of
church discipline.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So,
shamefully, Calvin was able to have Servetus, a heretic as far as
the Reformed were concerned, put to death by the city authorities of
Geneva. In Protestant England the King and his successors became ‘Defenders of
the Faith’. In Reformed Scotland, where the Westminster Confession of Faith
held sway from 1647, it was the law of the land, the part of the project of
‘Covenanted Uniformity’, ‘betwixt the Churches of Christ in the kingdoms of
Scotland, England and Ireland’. This became a reality only in Scotland. The
Scots are (in theory) still governed by Chapter 23 of the Westminster
Confession.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-left: 1.0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the
power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: yet he hath
authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace
be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure and
entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and
abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances
of God.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
England, Cromwellian England interfered by the death of Charles I in 1648/9,
and when in 1660 again kings as defenders of the faith was governed by the
re-establishment of the monarchy, in the person of Charles II, with the help of
the Act of Uniformity in 1660, which still holds in theory. From the
establishment of the Christian Religion came a different
interpretation of the place of the church and the wider society of
the New Testament, and in others in Europe Rome ruled.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
terms of confessions, in time <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
Westminster Confession was changed to conform with the American constitution,
and in England Dissent spawned its own Confessions it spawned, the
Savoy Declaration of Independency in 1658. In the chapter of the civil
magistrate included this: ‘It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute
the office of a magistrate, when called thereunto, in the management whereof,
as they ought specially to maintain justice and peace, according to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the wholesome laws of each commonwealth; so
for that end they may lawfully now under the New Testament wage war upon just
and necessary occasion. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith had a similar
wording for the civil magistrate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
view of the Protestant church and state that made the torture of
foes of the Christian church legal is by an extension of Romans 13
1-7, beginning ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities ‘ and
ending in v.5 paying taxes’ And also I Timothy 2.2-3 and I Peter 2.13.
Christians were to be good citizens. The Apostle’s status as a free Roman
citizen made it possible to gain his freedom from prison at
Philippi.(Acts 16.25f) But chiefly, by the policy of the adoption by Christian
churches as modelled on the Old Testament theocracy . And the recognition in the OT of the
sheltering role of the government. But all this was to be superseded by Christ’s assertion
that his kingdom was not of this world, Christ’s and the Apostles’ teaching of
the spirituality of the kingdom of God, and the nature of the kingship of Jesus
Christ.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
I Corinthians 5 Paul made a difference between who are ‘insiders’,
professing Christians and the crowd we outsiders which we have to mix with. The
question here was , could Christians dine off food that had been dedicated to
an idol. In the course of discussing Christian behaviour in the world the
Apostle Paul stated that Christians are free to buy and eat it. He
clarified earlier advice about the company the Christians should keep. And
not go to law with another Christian.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Enightenment, secularism, and Dissent followed, in Protestantism in Europe, and
in the United States of America, when its constitution was
established and the copies of the Westminster Confession (to those who
subscribed to it) made consistent with the American constitution.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
the light of this sketch, it supported toleration as it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was historically until Christianity was
allowed became part as the apparatus of state. This is a course that the
woke don’t follow. In their activities there is no evidence of them taking
account of the government, rather of secretive behaviour. More likely they use
force, or deception, or through their use of political-style lobbying as a prelude to gaining
a change in the law. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God’s
kingdom, (mentioned by Paul) which transcends all other organisations, the
members of which worship Christ her king, need ‘room’ in order to
flourish 'in the present evil age'(Gal.1.4), agencies in education, literature
and society. The growth of such a kingdom, God’s kingdom, creates effects in
society, as you would expect, but not of a worldly, political character.
Politics should not enter the life of Christ’s kingdom, which is not of this
world. As our Saviour said 'render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and
to God the things that are God’s'. (Mark 12.17)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
Paul said,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"></p><blockquote><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For
the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to
destroy strongholds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We destroy
arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take
every thought<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>captive to obey Christ….(2
Cor. 10.4,5)<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Note
the repeated contrast of work ‘in the flesh’, which means here 'physical exertion ' in contrast to ‘divine power’. Paul refers to
two worlds here, a life of physicality, and a spiritual life. The work of the gospel is
‘not of the flesh but of divine power'.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Believers
are in these two worlds, and we need to make this clear to our children and the
rising generation, with wisdom and patience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-65330200444164964752021-04-09T14:57:00.003+01:002021-04-09T15:00:38.906+01:00In the world, but not of it.<div><div style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>1381</o:Words>
<o:Characters>7877</o:Characters>
<o:Lines>65</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>18</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>9240</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>14.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">In the world, but not of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">You may be puzzled by references in the media to what is referred to
as the ‘woke’ position in cultural matters (in a wide sense). Currently, this attitude aims in securing power over of one group in
society over other groups. This might involve the ‘cancellation’ of a book, or the arguing for ‘equity’ between individuals or groups, to secure similar
outcomes for one group to another, or more choice of kinds of gender.
Each of these is described by their advocates as advances and achievements in
building their ‘personal identity’. universities, colleges, retailers (such as
Amazon), leisure centres and charities, are all positioning themselves to further ‘woke’ values. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This post has two aims, first to note the direction of the trends of
the various woke sensibilities, and then what the attitude of Christian believers
ought to be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">First, a word about what is meant by ‘personal identity’ by such woke advocates. This is not bearing the social class that a person occupies, as in the
‘working class’, or the ‘ruling class’ or ‘the elite’. Woke activity is not
part of the ding and dong between Left
and Right as they seek more votes, but as engaging in what George Orwell called
‘the capture of power’. It is not a
change in the strength of a social class nor is it a matter of metaphysics, an
inquiry into what makes for the identity and the changes of an individual
person. In the make up of the woke a person’s goals may be so strong that they come
to be is intrinsic to the identity of that person, hence the phrase ’person
identity’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Interestingly, Christians will be familiar with the woke use of ‘personal
identity’. For becoming a Christian has to do with the acquiring of a new nature,
with new goals and ambitions, and repudiating others. Christianity begins with the new birth, the
new creation, a transition between the ‘old man’, and the possession of the
‘new man’. This is not identity acquired by by the pressure of either political or social power, nor even by
legislation. Such a transition is solely due to the grace of God in the soul.
‘Adoption’ is another New Testament way of charactering this all-important
transition.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span> </span><span> '</span>For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of <span> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> slavery to fall back into fear, but you
have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father! The
Spirit himself bears witness to with our spirit that we are children of God’.
(Romans 8 15-16)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1cm;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Not slaves, but sons and daughters. This is not the everyday adoption of
a young person, which involves a mere a civil transaction. Life as a spiritually
adopted child is not immediately perfect. For
the new nature fights the old, remaining nature. The Christian has the
promise of a new destiny, where and ‘when he appears we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he is’ . and
that alone will suffice for such to have a completely new identity, when he sees Christ as he is. (I Peter 3.2) Paul wrote</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">You can see that‘ woke’ behaviour and its character is rather different from Paul’s
recipe for personal change as a Christian. For though the language is war-like,
and the Apostle to the Gentiles has a deadly enemy, Paul’s weapons are spiritual. He goes on in
this passage, v.15f. ’our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be
greatly enlarged’. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Christian standards and the woke</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In this matter of the pressure that ‘wokeism’ exerts we need to contrast it with the
standards of the New Testament. For
Christians, as when Paul taught that food that has been offered to idols may be eaten by believers with a good conscience. Why? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span> '</span>I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia;">all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy or swindlers, or idolators, since then you would need to go out of the world.'(I Cor. 5.10)</span></blockquote><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">As he went on to say,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span></p><blockquote><span> </span>'Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit te kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers nor men who practises homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy , nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the `Lord Jesus Christ and by the SpIrit of our God'. (1 Cor. 6.9-11)</blockquote><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Rubbing shoulders with such immoral people is inevitable it we are to live in the world, and it is desirable that we be in their company in order that they may hear of the gospel. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This is an attitude of toleration to
people who were not Christians . </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The NT church lived and worked among
queers, some of which were converted to Christ (‘such were some of you’) .The
Church may have to bear the charge of ‘bigotry’, but such talk is not to be
fostered.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In this matter of co-existing with the ‘woke’ is something that
true Christians have to bear, a part of their pilgrimage. However Christian
parents need to make the Kingdom and those of this world, for they must learn
of the difference.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Christians support toleration in society. In I Corinthians 5 Paul
discussed a difference who are ‘insiders’, professing Christians and the crowd
we outsiders which we have to mix with. The question here was , could
Christians dine off food that had been dedicated to an idol. In the course of
discussing Christian behaviour in the
world the Apostle Paul stated that
Christians are free to buy and eat it. He clarified earlier advice about the
company the Christians should keep.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">So much for toleration. In the account of Paul’s preaching at Athens in Acts 17, Luke’s
narrative shows that his message was not forced on his hearers. When his
preaching involved references to the resurrection of the dead, he was prepared
to hear some who mocked, and he did not press
any hearers for an immediate response. (See Acts 17. 32-4) And with the
Corinthians he wrote ‘we refuse to
practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement
of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s consciences in the sight
of God’. (2 Cor. 4.2) Another instance of his tolerance. ‘We are afflicted
in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not
forsaken, struck down but not destroyed’ (2 Cor.4. 8,9) No intimidation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The woke have no compunction in forcing, on for example, on Amazon, in ‘cancelling’
(that is withdrawing) titles that express a Christian view. No discussion. Besides
these, woke attempt to force the Police to provide single women to accompany as
they walk home across London in the evening with the protection by as they
choose to walk. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">These cases, such as countering ‘racism’, or fostering gender changes,
or the confiscation of books , or the right to be accompanied by police. Such behaviour lessens the historic practices of
Christianity, marriage between a man and a woman, the 'nuclear'family. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> For the woke, in contrast to the toleration of Christians, they make changes in underhand ways. So the purpose of the
creating floral displays following the dreadful murder of Sarah Everard is (at the time of writing), unclear what the
motivation is, but we may be sure that the (mainly) young ladies who gathered bearing flowers were not bent
on organising a weekly prayer meeting. Their attention to the support of
Sarah’s mourning family does not seem to have been a centrepiece of the
activities. The question of why the crowd collected as it did is a bit of a
mystery, but no doubt we shall discover later.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Christians must be advocates of toleration in defending the practices
they wish to support.As they have been historically until Christianity was allowed to the state. This is a course that the woke don’t follow. In their
activities there is no evidence of them taking account of the government,
rather of secretive behaviour. More likely they use force, or through their use
of political-style lobbying as a prelude to gaining a change in the law. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: 150%;">God’s kingdom, (mentioned by Paul) which transcends all other
organisations, the members of which worship Christ her king, need ‘room’ in order to flourish 'in the present evil age'(Gal.1.4), agencies in education, literature and
society. The growth of such a kingdom, God’s kingdom, creates effects in society, as you would
expect, but not of a worldly, political character. Politics should not
enter the life of Christ’s kingdom, which is not of this world. As our Saviour said ' render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God’s'. (Mark 12.17) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment--></div><p></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-53777127887406484812021-03-02T12:41:00.003+01:002021-04-11T06:36:07.587+00:00The Modality of Easter<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The big words of our English translations of the New Testament matter: justification, sanctification, predestination, election, and so on. They matter for understanding the Christian Faith. But so do small ones. This post is devoted to a small word which in its way is as vital for the growth of faith and love in the believer as some of the big ones. I refer to the word ‘must’. In various passages of the New Testament that have to do with events surrounding Jesus’s death and resurrection they state these in a manner that what occurred had to happen or must happen. These are too many to be thought of us as mere stylistic variants, but are central to the narrative. Here are some examples from the New Testament.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mark</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">8.31 ‘And he began to teach them that the Son of Man </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">must</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> suffer many thing rejected the elders….’(8.31)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Luke </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">24.7 ‘But the Son of Man <i>must</i> be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified and on the third day rise’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">24.44 ‘that everything written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms <i>must</i> be fulfilled.’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">9.22, ‘the Son of Man <i>mus</i>t suffer many things….’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">22.37 ‘For I tell you that this Scripture <i>must </i>be fulfilled in me’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">John</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">3.14, ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so <i>must</i> the Son of Man be lifted up’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">4.24. ‘God is spirit and those who worship him <i>must</i> worship in spirit and truth’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">9.4. ‘we <i>must</i> work the works of him who sent me’. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">10.16. ‘I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I <i>must</i> bring them also.’ </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">12.34. ‘the Son of Man <i>must</i> be lifted up’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">20.9. ‘that he <i>must</i> rise from the dead,’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">19.36.’that the Scripture might be fulfilled’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Acts of the Apostles</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">17.3, ‘it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead’. The AV has ‘should be’ and both these expressions can have ‘<i>must be</i>’ as their equivalent, though there are other meanings of ‘might’ in English that are weaker, for example as in ‘He might come but more likely won’t’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">I Corinthians</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">15 25 ‘For he <i>must</i> reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">II</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">These are not meant to take in all the references to ‘must’, but to be a generous sample. In odd cases other words are used. In other examples words other than ‘must’, but equivalent to it. The quotation from Paul’s address in Athens spells of the point that to sufferings and rising from the dead were ‘necessary’, that they were necessitated, or inevitable. And the translators of the ESV for some reason used ‘might be’ in place of ‘was necessary that’ or ‘must’. The AV uses ‘should be’ at this point.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">We can see that the chief theme which employs ‘must’ have to do with aspects of the work of Christ as our Redeemer, in his crucifixion and rising again. That ‘'mustness’' is present in different texts, especially in the Gospel of Mark which can be said to have Jesus being aware of and the <i>must</i> about his redeeming us on the cross that he solemnly refers to his disciples at structural points of the entire Gospel, with growing explicitness. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">First as 8.31 ‘And he began to teach them that the Son of Man <i>must</i> suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again’. ….’ </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">9.31-2 ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">10.32-4 And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him, pit on him, and flog him, and kill him. And after three days he will rise’ More detail, but no ‘must’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">13.10 ‘And the gospel <i>must</i> first be proclaimed to all nations’</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">III</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">So what is all this telling us? A passage in John 19 is Instructive. John gives an account of the failure of the soldiers to break the bones of those crucified, the two crucified along side Jesus, and Jesus himself. The soldiers made as to break Jesus’ legs (v.31) John comments,‘</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">But when they (the soldiers) came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead , they did not break his legs, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it borne witness –‘his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling you truth - ‘that you also may believe. is true’ - that you also may believe. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear bear witness…..For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ‘Not one of his bones ‘will be broken.’ [Zech. 12.10] And again another Scripture says, ‘They will look on him whom they have pierced’. [Ex 12,46, Num. 9.12] </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Could Jesus’s legs have been broken? They certainly could have. Jesus’s body was a human body, and human legs are breakable. So why were they not broken? Because their behaviour was ‘governed’ by a word of Scripture, a prophetic word. It is a case of what the scholastics referred to as a ‘hypothetical necessity’. The ‘hypothesis’ that generates the necessity in this case were the words of prophecy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">John tells us that this word was Zechariah 12.10 - ‘And I will pour out on the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, in him they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn’. And Ex. 12.46 and Num. 9.12, ‘. The first is from the installation of the Passover: the sacrifice was kept intact, ‘thou shalt not break any of his bones; and Numbers 9.12 repeats the proper Passover arrangements.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">IV</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">So the ‘must’ was not a logical ‘must’, governed by the carrying out of the character of the Passover, but what the scholastics referred to as a hypothetical necessity. The necessity of God’s good pleasure. As Paul says in I Corinthians 5, ‘Christ our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed’. (I Cor. 5.6). which is an integral part of the ‘festival’ of the Lord’s Supper, the remembering of his death, which includes the piercing of his side. John reports, that Christ the Son of God ‘came by water and blood’ (1 John 5.6) Piercing is mentioned twice in John 19. 24, 37. See also Revelation, 1.7. When Jesus taught his disciples about the destiny that he must undergo, this is not about his possession of special legs, but by the will of God the Father that he endured for his people. This is the curtain of his flesh that was signified by the ripping of the temple curtain, as his flesh was pierced that the author of the letter to the Hebrews refers to in Heb. 6.19, 20 and 10.20. </span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-12320308161983598852021-02-03T20:19:00.005+01:002021-02-03T21:15:34.447+01:00Live Not By Lies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Live Not By Lies,</i> A Manual for Christian Dissidents (Sentinel), is a recent book by Rod Dreher, who is well-known in American journalism of politics religion and culture. His book and its central argument will be of interest and concern to any genuine Christian. Dreher is concerned about the rise of what he calls ‘soft totalitarianism’ in the US. We are all aware of totalitarianism, what he calls hard totalitarianism, a system of power based on the power of an elite, the secret police and privilege of the Party. based on the loss of citizenship, resulting in the absence of freedom of thought and of debate. Soft totalitarianism is Dreher’s term for the sacrificing of freedom, including religious freedoms, by appealing to the comforts and pleasures of modern life and our unwillingness to sacrifice them. (p.11) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He focuses on Eastern Europe whose history endured first the totalitarianism of Nazism, to be followed not by liberation at the end of the second World War, but by the totalitarianism of the USSR, forcing the people the be shackled to Communism. Dreher obtained he this from people, now elderly, some of which emigrated to the US who were deprived of religious liberty. His concern is that such a degeneracy will follow the West, and he discerns the signs of it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He tells how an old lady, an emigrated Czech, was reminded how this pattern of what he calls ‘soft’ totalitarianism, by the passivity of the men and women in Czechoslovakia who, after the Second World War, the Czechs the Soviet Union was allowed to take over their nation, involving the loss of their liberty the work of their Soviet-backed government. Only members of the Communist party could enjoy full privileges as citizens, the rest were discriminated as second – class citizens. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union in…that they began to regain their sought-for liberties.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He recounts this through interviewing several who suffered in these sickening events. Dreher based his book on interviews he conducted in. Here are some of his examples Kolakovic ‘the prophet’, as Dreher describes him, discerned a coming conflict between in 1944. Soviet totalitarianism posed a threats to hope for liberal democracy, though promising freedom. He writes</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Father Kolakovic knew that the clericalism and passivity of traditional Slovak Catholicism would be no match for communism For one thing, he correctly foresaw that the communists . For one thing, he currently foresaw that the communists would try to control the Church by subduing the clergy. For another, he understood that the spiritual trials awaiting believers under communism would put them to an extreme test. The charismatic pastor preached that only a total life commitment to Christ would enable them to withstand the coming trial.. (4)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It’s possible to note the onslaught of totalitarianism, precisely because we have a misunderstanding of how its power works. in 1951, poet and literary critic Czeslaw Milosz, exiled to the West from his native Poland as an anti-communist dissident, wrote that Western people misunderstand the nature of communism because they think of it only in terms of ‘might and coercion’. (9)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dreher comments that totalitarians today may yearn for justice, and go to the length of demonizing dissenters and victims in order to being about ‘social justice’. Advocates of this become totalitarian in order to become to bully for ‘social justice’ at whatever the price. (10) He mentions other, similar cases such as Kremery (45), Solzhenitsyn (170, and Wurmbrand (199-201). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These were among those who suffered by their defiance of a totalitarian regime, and he sketches their social conditions and the mind set of the culture when in the hands of their masters, such as loneliness (31and in social conditions, what he calls social atomization, (31), and their experience of mutual distrust between citizens </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dreher contrasts this with what he holds is a rising current totalitarianism in the U.S.,through consumerism, involving restrictions to the liberties of the market for goods and services. The way in which these liberties were suppressed in post-war Czechoslovakia, when those who were members of the Party, the favoured segment of the population who has ‘correct’ views, as against the remainder of society who were not supporters of the Party, and so lose their place in the society. Now, in the rights are curtailed That is, the curtailment of traditional freedoms when certain activities are reserved by the LGBT community, or by the Left view more generally, such as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ in social justice. These are developed without any opposition from the wider public. It is this process is the tightening of the loss of freedoms for those who refuse of the LGBT community, which he calls Dreher calls the onset of ‘soft’ totalitarianism.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So Dreher’s evidence for his view of ‘progress’ depends from the experience of those of an earlier era, as in Czechoslovakia and other post-war countries under Soviet rule. He depends on Hannah Arendt’s book on the rise of totalitarian, finding similarities. And of course, from the interviews from those who found Soviet-driven totalitarianism breaking out after the defeat of Hitler. They experienced one loss of liberty and then another.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">II</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These facts have stimulated Rod to take trips to eastern, former Soviet dominated peoples. The first part of the book ‘’Understanding Soft Totalitarianism’ goes into the effects of this period in some detail. These are prompted by what Rod learned from his interviews of elderly people of countries who were first colonized by the German Nazis, and then dominated by their enemies, as in Soviet Communism.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dreher premises his book on the way in which totalitarian power is overcome, , as in the U.S.S.R and earlier on Nazi Fascism. He thinks that it is possible to detect a totalitarianism in the current culture and social life in the U.S. Because of the tactics and positions if the LGBT community, who have been able to politicize universities, media and even government departments. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The political tactics of soft totalitarians polarizes the population into the oppressed and the oppressors, forcing the average easy going-citizen onto one camp or the other, or dangles some goal, only if they will commit to the cause. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So soft totalitarianism, how it initiated the sex revolution, its social attitudes, and advocacy of social justice (54, 63) and woke capitalism (71-8) This is the doing of critical theory, to the end of the ‘progressiveness’ of what is called ‘social justice’.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The US is not the UK, and soft totalitarianism is not established, though its seeds are evident The strategy of the totalitarian is the same in contemporary China, as it was in Czechoslovakia after the war, and what we are faced with. `it is that of a conditional promise….</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Carl Trueman puts this succinctly. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Critical race theory, like other critical theories – postcolonialism or queer theory, for example, is self-certifying. Its basic claims, for example, that racism is systemic or that being non-racist is impossible, are not conclusions drawn from arguments. They are axiom, and they cannot be challenged by those who do not agree with them. Those who dissent or offer criticism are, by definition, part of the problem</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">III</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What should be the responses of Christians faced with critical theory? Dreher makes a number of suggestions: Prioritize the truth, cultivate a sense of history, and church history, tell the past to your children, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">1.Resist the reductionism of secularism, to think of all life is what is of value. The immanent is not all-important. Cultivate the memory for Christians, and church history. The memory can be a fortress against contemporary propaganda , which includes not only the capacity for dialogue and tolerance. Some matters cannot be bargained away. Be prepared to suffer for your faith, bearing the cross. The Christian life is not that of the values of contemporary bourgeois. The family must be developed and, prepare – to sacrifice, and to follow the Saviour.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">God’s kingdom, whose members worship Christ her king, needs immanent ‘room’, agencies in education, literature and society. With an effect in society, but not of a worldly, political character. Politics should not enter the life of Christ’s kingdom. His kingdom is not of this world.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-72437091551501258582021-01-01T19:39:00.001+01:002021-04-24T19:35:29.141+00:00Two Sermons <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I had the good fortune of hearing two sermons before the season of Christmas had got going. Each were quite different but both reflected on Jesus as God. This was most unusual, for more usually I am told in such an Easter sermon, that on the first Good Friday, Jesus died, and that since he was God, God died. He was died usually for the period of Easter, whatever that period was. Then, Easter forgotten, God had become restored to fully God again, for the rest of the church year until the onset of the next Advent, which was another occasion when this nonsense was bruited. And Christmas sermons (where they continue to exist) have come to have a childishness too.</div><div><br /></div><div>You will see that this inference i ‘when Jesus died, God died’ is not due to a failure of logic, but I like to call it a mistake of grammar. I should like to take up on this occasion what this means and why it is useful. Jesus is God, but he is not only God. He has another nature, which John in his peerless introduction of John’s Gospel asserted, though it was not the first thing he said. The chapter starts with the Word who was with God and more importantly, was God, from eternity, ‘from the beginning’. He was the creator. ‘All thing were made through him’, which John calls ‘life’, ‘in him was life’ and that life had an enlightening force on mankind. He had the power of creation, and so was the Creator, as Paul says, (Col.1.16). That ‘from the beginning’ or ‘in the beginning’ may suggest that the Son was alongside his Father, but he was God every bit as much as his Father was God, One God. In the Nicene Creed we read that the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘is from the essence of the Father, God from God…begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father, through whom all things came into being….’ The Son of God is God, both scripturally and creedly.</div><div><br /></div><div>John does not use ‘Son’ until v. 14. Then, John says ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us….’ (v.16) It does not say that the word was a creature , or the flesh, or that the flesh brought about the Word. So now John has passed on to the incarnation of the word, or of the Son. And this incarnation becomes more apparent from what is later, said in v. 39 and following……He is a man who ‘stands’ with others. The entire first chapter can be thought as a disclosure of the incarnate Son of God in successive verses. He is first the Word who was with God, (v.1) and who was God, (v.1) and is our Creator, (v.3), and then as the God-man, becoming flesh, (v. 16), and the originator of the new birth ( v.1,13), full of grace and truth (v.12), at the Father’s side(v.1. 16). And in the latest phase of the Son he gives evidence of his true humanity, as he not only is shown as the eternal son of God, displaying his glory as the Son of the Father, but as incarnate.</div><div><br /></div><div>So if we study this bit of what John has stated, we find that there are things we can and cannot say of Jesus if we have keep to what is revealed, that in John the Baptist’s words, Jesus is the Lamb of God. (1.29)</div><div><br /></div><div>The word ‘became’ is particularly liable to send us in the wrong direction, ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (v.16) ‘Became’ can have a strong and a weak sense. When it is stated that the Word who was God and with God (V.1), obviously cannot change as those who are in time change. He became flesh, but this cannot mean that in becoming flesh the Word ceased to be with God and that he was not with God. Rather he took on flesh. Here we at the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation, what Paul called ‘Great is the mystery of godliness’ (I Tim.3. 16). At this point we must be resolute in our maintenance of the divinity, the godhead, of the Word. As such he was eternally was God and with God, and was with us.</div><div><br /></div><div>He became flesh, possessing a human nature, when Mary was told by Gabriel not to be afraid, in that ‘you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, and he shall be great………(Luke 1.31-2), and ‘The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over his house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1.32) And ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore he child to be born will be called ‘holy’…..the Son of God. (1.35): Christ – great, </div><div><br /></div><div>Here we see the mysterious working of the Incarnation, insofar as we are given it, and can understand it. But that event was unparalleled, and so it does not become us to try to understanding this profound mystery by producing this or that ‘model’ of the Incarnation in order to comprehend it. But we can confidently state that here the eternal Word became flesh, as John states so. ( Jn. 1.14)</div><div><br /></div><div>The second sermon</div><div><br /></div><div>The second on was an exposition from the well-known words from Isaiah 9.</div><div><br /></div><div>For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isa. 9. 6-9)</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a rich description of the divinity of the one who is to come. He is the mighty God and, even more strangely perhaps, the Everlasting Father. (But he is [fatherly] in the sense that by Holy Spirit he is the Comforter of his people’.) Through the work of the Father, He exercises an everlasting government, inheriting the throne of David for ever. But the verses give us of his humanity, says Calvin, concentrates our attention not to the divine essence (though this is affirmed, but to the various divine powers by which he defends and comforts his people. ‘He does not speak of Christ’s mysterious essence , but applauds his excellencies, which we perceive and experience by. This ought to be the more carefully considered , because the greater part of men are satisfied with his mere name, and do not observe his power and energy, though that ought to be chiefly regarded’. As Paul states in Colossians (II.3) in Christ ‘are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’. Imagine a sermon at Christmas concentrating upon the wisdom and government of the newly born baby!</div><div><br /></div><div>It is interesting that in Luke’s extensive account of Christ’s birth, the angels who spoke to those godly believers into whose circle he came, used the language of the Old Testament was what they expected, a Mighty King. Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that her child was to be ‘great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end, (Lk I. 32-33). This continues in the Magnificat of Mary who refers to the child as ‘God my Saviour’, (Lk. 1.48), the one she magnified as ‘the mighty one ’.</div><div><br /></div><div>We should remember that Christmas is not best celebrated as a climax of the pantomime season. It is the declaration of the birth of the mighty king. </div><div><br /></div><div>[The review of Rod Dreher’s book Live Not By Lies has not been forgotten. It should appear at the end of the month.]</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35488196.post-82505405006917050772020-12-01T10:55:00.002+01:002021-04-11T07:21:40.410+00:00Carl Trueman's New Book<p></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJA16ko-sPlpth0IW9krfV2-Kmw934E0Vzwyw_Qqzx2fvxKIrwcrnMEBvgHavaH24_31o-fHzs74O2tLdJBHjCq6JYKNF3z5I7agRFd-b_0ZAe23RWJUcD0K6b6vm2cGOWPsCL/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="483" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJA16ko-sPlpth0IW9krfV2-Kmw934E0Vzwyw_Qqzx2fvxKIrwcrnMEBvgHavaH24_31o-fHzs74O2tLdJBHjCq6JYKNF3z5I7agRFd-b_0ZAe23RWJUcD0K6b6vm2cGOWPsCL/" width="320" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Carl Trueman</i></span></div><div><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I have been reading Carl Trueman’s<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i> The Rise </i></span><span class="s2" style="font-family: Geneva; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">and</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i> Triumph of the Modern Self - Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution. </i>(Crossway. <i>)</i>I could hardly put it down. It is a weighty, clear, and thorough treatment of its theme, the modern understanding of one’s self. Throughout the book, the author seems to be in control of his material, and has a clear, commanding style.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He is a historian by profession, and a Conservative Protestant.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A treatment of this kind of analysis on contemporary culture makes<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the book pretty unique.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This book can be thought as a study of a history<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of ideas, or of human culture, and in the influence of its elements on our contemporary world , the world of human values and priorities of its culture. In theological terms, then, the book is an exercise of anthropology, the doctrine of human beings, involving an estimate of some of its current expressions. Some of these data are psychological, others from poetry, and in the arguments political philosophy. If you stick to the text, my guess is that you will learn a lot. Trueman’s style is clear, and his contents are highly organised. He is highly proficient in the mores of our non-Christian neighbours, to adolescent children, and agenda of the media. There is a welter of material, but to his diligence and clarity, his readers<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>will usually know where they are in any place they come to.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The sources</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The key to what follows in the book is the thought of Philip Rieff (1922-2006 ), an American sociologist, whose view of the modern Western culture is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that its dominant feature is what he calls the 'plastic' view of the self, joined Charles Taylor, the Canadian philosopher, (1931 - ) whose books <i>Sources of the Self</i>, and <i>The Making of the Modern Identity</i>, strongly concur in the character of our culture,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>though not knowingly, They have arrived at different times and places of a similar outlook.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The third influence is Alasdair Macintyre, (1929 -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the philosopher, who is the author of a number of books, of which <i>After Virtue</i> (1985). Their interest to Trueman lies in versions of psychological views of human nature…… . Each of Taylor and Macintyre are Roman Catholics. Macintyre<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>has argued for many years the view that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ethics in the modern world is emotive, (nothing but expressions of emotion), as a result of which moral argument and modern ethical objectivity, and the ideas of virtue and vice, have become impossible.What once views and intuitions were settled as matters of fact, and of the law, they now are matters of choice. People are free to pursue their own projects. Other influences are Romantic English poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake, Neo-Marxism and the influence of Nietzsche and Karl Marx, and Darwin.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What do this rather different trio of Rieff, Taylor and Macintyre </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">have in common? I think it is fair to say that Trueman treats them as sources of the reimagining of the human self. The three thinkers do not concur, and certainly have not collaborated, </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">But their approaches overlap, each providing materials which can provide elements of the modern view of the self. In this situation argument regarding matters of sex is futile. No doubt Trueman could have given his readers other examples. What interests his interest is the LGTBQ+ community, and their birth and variety, from it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Introduction</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is my plan here to introduce the book through its first two chapters ‘Reimagining the Self’, and ‘Reimagining our iCulture’ set the basis of the book, its given. And chapter 2 will give the interested reader a slice of Trueman’s scope, and a brief taste of the chapters that follow, ‘Reimagining the Self’, and ‘Reimagining Our Culture." ‘Reimagining’ is Taylor’s word for the newly discovered of the human self, He sees such 'reimagination' currently having its public culmination in the ‘sexual revolution’,’the radical and on-going transformation of sexual attitudes and behaviours that has occurred in the West since the 1960’s’( 21) The self has to do with the level of self - consciousness which emphasises a level of inwardness as the criterion of who a person is, his loves and hates. So inwardness is shaped<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by its territory, by fixed do’s and don’t’s basic to themselves. It is only in a situation in which the do’s and don’ts have weakened from the self’s traditional sense at vanishing point that the modern sexual revolution could occur. That revolution is not only of the sexual changes of this idea of the self, but it is at least this. Another criterion of the character of the self is what makes a person happy. So it is a paradox that two views which are different but cannot be argued for their truth or falsity may contribute centrally to the view of the self that is regarded as true, indeed, as part of a person’s view of him or herself. Gay marriage and transgenderism, for example,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>now legitimate, deep and intuitively true, obvious to very many in our culture as a result of these cultural changes, as divorce in marriage became general in an earlier era.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Central Argument</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The central argument of the book in Part 2, chapters 3, 4 and 5, takes the reader into the eighteenth century, to Rousseau and into English poets such as…William Blake and Percy Miss Shelley, who as part of their Romantic outlook had an antipathy of the straitjacket necessarily imposed by Christian Holy Matrimony.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Trueman shows this by reviewing developments associated in Romanticism<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in poets including William Blake and Percy Bysse Shelley who inveighed against society’s ‘Christian sexual codes and particularly with the normative status of lifelong, monogamous marriage’. (27) To this mix is to added Macintyre’s advocacy of emotive ethics, which makes rational argument about a moral issue difficult if not impossible.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, there three identifiable elements, foundations of in Trueman’s account: (1) the appearance of new general descriptions of the self, and generalisations over the new caste and activity of human consciousness:, and the impossibility of ethical argument, due to emotivism and subjectivism: (2) facts about changing behaviour, and particular over sex; especially of cohabiting, homosexuality and transgender: and (3)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The disparagement of monogamous life-time marriage between the sexes, which presents fundamental<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>problems for Christians.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In these chapters Trueman shows himself to be at home in various relevant historical epochs bearing on his topic, and then to their contemporary bearing in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Nietzsche, Marx and Darwin. At the end of the book, Trueman, has some comments of a general kind to Christians. In this vein, In this, the climax of the book,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I shall add a little to what he says.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The attractiveness of the Sexual Revolution is its lawfulness. Homosexuality and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Christian matrimony law. As views of gender and sexuality have widened<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the law was changed, because certain acts were illegal. Now it is the novel views that have the preservation of the law. So, you might say, this leaves the Christian in a position of what the law permits. If that were so it may live and live and let live. But it is not so easy. So, increasingly, the orthodox Christian views are outlawed. They are not exclusive. In the days when Christian orthodoxy had the preserve of the law, the church, particularly the church established by law. The privileged position of the Church of England was taken for granted, and non - conforrmity trailed in its wake. How were the rising generations treated? Was the newly-dawning<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>libertinism avoided?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>For example, were the children of Christians warned and instructed? It was taken for granted that Christian orthodoxy was the view of everyone. Anything other life-style was not even talked about. The idea that Christians have a unique mode of life was forgotten.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The times had changed or were changing. As for the New Testament, the times were changing. Jesus warned the Pharisees and Sadducees ‘You know how to interpret<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the appearance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times’. (Matt. 16.4) But now there are groups riding a coach and horses through Christian teaching, and we did not seem to care.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This reference to such a text as ‘endure hardness’, (Paul’s advice to Timothy)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>reminds me that the American conservative Christian and author Rod Dreher was invited<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to write the Foreword of Trueman’s book. The theme of Dreher’s <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>own book might be said convey the apostolic advice<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Christians, to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>‘endure hardness’ (or to ‘get real’). It is hoped to review Dreher's book<i> Live Not By Lies: A Manuel for Christian Dissidents</i>, (Sentinel) in our the next blog. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p></div>Paul Helmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14148931485409875048noreply@blogger.com